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The German leftĪnother Berlin-based activist, Israeli dissident and BDS supporter Ronnie Barkan, offers a more cogent explanation for why parts of the German left supported the anti-BDS legislation: it is racist. The impulse to criminalise BDS, then, according to Hever, stems from the desire to overcome one’s guilt over the Holocaust. "But by doing that they’re saying, oh, we’re fighting antisemitism by choosing to support Israel, the state of Israel, rather than by being responsible for the protection of Jewish people." “And that is a dogwhistle message to the right wing in Germany," Hever continued, adding: “But apparently the left, parts of the left, have expressed some desire to rid themselves of their guilt over the Holocaust by equating the BDS movement, which is a Palestinian call, with antisemitism. “Instead of feeling guilty about the Holocaust and feeling the need to apologise and to bear responsibility for those crimes which were committed so many years ago, you could actually transfer the guilt to the Palestinians," Hever explained. Recalling that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had twice asserted that it was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, mufti of Jerusalem, and not Adolf Hitler, who first came up with the idea of exterminating the Jews, Hever suggests that Netanyahu was giving the Germans a way out of their guilt over the Holocaust. Hever offers an interesting (if not quite convincing) explanation of Germany’s condemnation of BDS. The impulse to criminalise BDS, according to German economist Shir Hever, stems from the desire to overcome one’s guilt over the Holocaust This makes Germany the first and only country in the world to criminalise the BDS movement.” They deemed BDS as antisemitic and illegal. Thus, for example, an interview with the Berlin-based political economist Shir Hever, opens: “The German parliament, the Bundestag, has just passed an unprecedented piece of legislation condemning the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as the BDS.

A convincing explanationĪlarmist articles started circulating shortly after, some claiming Germany is “the first country in the world to criminalise BDS”. The far-right AfD party put forward its own motion calling for a complete ban on the BDS movement, while Germany's leftist party, Die Linke, did not back the government motion, instead putting forward its own motion, calling for the condemnation of any antiemitic BDS statements. The non-binding resolution, proposed by the country’s governing centre-right Christian Democrats and centre-left Social Democrats, won the support of various German parties including Liberals and the Greens. On 17 May, in a stealth move that took many observers by surprise, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, passed a resolution condemning BDS as antisemitic.