Berlin Jewish Museum takes heat for tweeting link to pro-BDS story

German Jewish community head says institution seems ‘out of control’; museum says it was just highlighting an issue

By Toby Axelrod 12 June 2019, 6:37 am

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The Berlin Jewish Museum was under fire in 2019 for retweeting a link to a pro-BDS article. (Prisma by Dukas/Universal Images Group/ Getty Imagesvia JTA)

BERLIN (JTA) — The Berlin Jewish Museum is under fire for tweeting a link to a pro-BDS story.

At issue is an official tweet sent June 6 by the museum encouraging followers to read an article in the left-wing daily newspaper Taz about a petition in which 240 Jewish and Israeli scholars criticized a May 17 Bundestag resolution labeling the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel as anti-Semitic.

The nonbinding, nonpartisan resolution bars the BDS movement — and any group deemed anti-Semitic — from receiving federal funds and using public space.

Facing a storm of criticism the museum, which has come under fire for welcoming anti-Zionists such as scholar Judith Butler and representatives of the Iranian regime, tweeted on June 9 that it merely wanted to call attention to the discussion and “has in no way positioned itself against the resolution of the Bundestag.”

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster speaks during a ceremony at the Synagogue Rykestrasse in Berlin on November 9, 2018 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht Nazi pogrom. (Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)

On Tuesday, Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, slammed the museum for what he called “the last straw.”

“The Jewish Museum Berlin seems to be completely out of control. Under these conditions, one has to wonder whether the term ‘Jewish’ is still appropriate,” he wrote.

The Bundestag in its resolution described BDS’ “patterns of argumentation and methods” as anti-Semitic, including disputing Israel’s right to exist.