Germany is not planning to outlaw the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, the speaker of its parliament says.
“We fight it politically, but we don’t believe that it is fought more successfully through prohibitions,” Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble tells journalists in Jerusalem.
Earlier this year, the Bundestag passed with an overwhelming majority a resolution rejecting any attempts to boycott Israel.
However, Schäuble says, “We are relatively hesitant regarding prohibitions, since our constitution doesn’t give the parliament much room to enact prohibitions, correctly so, because we believe that is up to an independent judiciary.”
Schäuble, a member of the ruling Christian Democratic Union and former finance minister, dismisses concerns about controversial legislation that was passed in the Knesset in recent months, such as the Jewish nation-state law.
“I have few worries about the stability of Israel’s democracy,” he says. “Israel has such a high degree of democratic maturity and diversity, and also a high degree of debate culture and I don’t even mean that ironically, so that I am really not worried.”
— Raphael Ahren
President Reuven Rivlin (R) meets with Bundestag President Wolfgang Schauble at his official residence in Jerusalem on October 25, 2018. (Mark Neiman/GPO)
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