PA: German decision against BDS ‘dangerous’

Palestinian Authority (PA) said yesterday that it sees the German decision to class BDS anti-Semitic “very dangerous”, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported yesterday .

In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the PA said that this decision proves that Israel still imposes its agenda on representatives of European nations, adding that it is “blackmailing” the German parliament through its historic mistake related to the Holocaust.

On Friday, Germany voted in favour of a bill which labelled the BDS movement anti-Semitic claiming that the drive’s “don’t buy” stickers – which aim to identify products of Israeli origin so consumers can refrain from purchasing them – “arouse associations [with] the Nazi slogan ‘Don’t buy from Jews’” and are “reminiscent of the most horrific phase in German history”.

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The PA’s statement said that this decision is “turning a blind eye to the fact that Israel is a state of ethnic cleansing and continues committing crimes against the Palestinians without being held accountable.”

It also said that this decision is opposed by international law and “contradicts international legitimacy and its resolution and is considered a flagrant violation of the policies and decisions of the EU.”

The PA reiterated that the Israeli Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem are a crime according to international law and the Geneva conventions.

The Arab League also called on the German parliament  – known as the Bundestag – to rescind the resolution.

The Arab League’s assistant secretary-general for Palestinian affairs Saeed Abu Ali said in a statement the Bundestag’s motion against BDS is “regrettable… unjustified… [and] biased” in favour of Israel.

He urged Germany’s parliament to “reverse this erroneous step and support the Palestinian people’s right for liberation.”

BDS – the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement – is an international drive that calls for boycotting Israel’s occupation, divesting from it and imposing sanctions on it as a method of peaceful resistance which could lead to achieving freedom, justice and equality for Palestinians and help them attain self-determination.

Guest Writer: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign and public discourse