CAIRO — The Arab League called Sunday on the German parliament to rescind a resolution that condemned a boycott movement against Israel as “anti-Semitic.”
The call by the pan-Arab bloc comes after the Bundestag passed a motion on Friday against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, warning that its actions were reminiscent of the Nazis’ campaign against Jews.
BDS, founded in 2005, describes itself as a Palestinian-led movement, which calls for the boycott of Israeli goods, services and culture as a means of pressuring the Jewish state over its policies toward the Palestinians.
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 favor of Israel.
Illustrative: Palestinian and left-wing Jewish groups stage a rally walking from Times Square to the United Nations Building in New York, September 15, 2011, calling to end all US aid to Israel and support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. (AP Photo/David Karp)
He urged Germany’s parliament to “reverse this erroneous step and support the Palestinian people’s right for liberation.”
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The non-binding resolution said the BDS movement’s “Don’t Buy” stickers on Israeli products revive memories of the Nazis’ slogan “Don’t buy from Jews,” and other graffiti on shop facades and windows.
The Bundestag also pledged to reject any financial support for the boycott movement, and to prevent BDS and its partners holding events on its premises.
The multi-party motion was backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right CDU-CSU bloc, the Social Democratic Party, the liberal Free Democratic Party and the Greens.
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