2019-Apr-01 Germany

                Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, passed a motion condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as anti-Semitic on 17 May. The motion urges the German government to not support projects cooperating with or actively calling for boycotts of Israel. A long list of Jewish scholars called on the German parliament not to equate BDS with anti-Semitism prior to the vote. The Palestine Liberation Organization secretary general Saeb Erakat also urged German lawmakers to reverse the resolution in a letter to the Bundestag. Secretary General Erakat called the resolution “utterly biased, void of any context and an affront to the right to freedom of expression.” After the resolution passed, the American rapper Talib Kweli was disinvited to perform at a music festival in Düsseldorf because he supports BDS. The artistic director of the festival wrote to Kweli, “The new situation is that since 17 May 2019, there is now an official statement from the German government signed by all parties which basically officially declares the statements and methods of the BDS as anti-Semitic.”