Israel Matzav

Neo-Nazis taking over BDS movement in Europe

In Jewish law there's a phrase that describes when two similar things find each other. The phrase - which comes from the laws prohibiting the mixing of milk and meat is מצא מין את מינו (the type found its own type). Europe's BDS movement and their Israeli supporters have found their own type: The neo-Nazi movement. Benjamin Weinthal reports.

If labeling Jewish goods sounds darkly reminiscent, it does as well to Germany’s neo-Nazi groups, who have recently co-opted the country’s BDS movement.

But the neo-Nazis shouldn’t get all the attention — labeling goods from East Jerusalem is a brazen act of economic warfare from Europe, and one that violates the principles of the very peace process Europe claims to promote.

The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians said merely that Jerusalem is a subject for final-status negotiations, not a “settlement.”

The European Union itself defines Jerusalem as a corpus separatum — a “separate body” whose status is subject to negotiation — rather than occupied territory.

More broadly, the drive to label Israeli merchandise has allowed Germany’s resurgent far-right to push its way to the front of the anti-Israel movement.

In 2009, Jürgen Rieger, a Holocaust denier and then-deputy chairman of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany, called on Germans to boycott Israel.

In 2012, the party submitted a legislative initiative in the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to mark Israeli products. Udo Pastörs, the NPD’s leader in the state, has declared Germany a “Jew Republic.”

To its credit, the German government did not join the 16 out of 28 European foreign ministers who signed on a letter calling for labeling of Israeli products from the 'occupied territories.' But among those who did sign on was Austria, the birthplace of Nazism, which is still trying to portray itself as a victim of Nazism 80 years later. Here's Weinthal again:

To its credit, Germany did not sign a European foreign ministers’ letter calling for product labeling. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration has demonstrated it has learned from its nation’s history: The first phase of the Holocaust, after all, started with targeting Jewish businesses with the crude Nazi slogan “Kauf nicht bei Juden” (Don’t buy from Jews).

While visiting Israel in 2014, Merkel said flatly that boycotting Israel “is not an option for Germany.”

Nevertheless, 16 of the 28 EU foreign ministers did sign the sanctions letter, including regional leaders France and Britain, and Germany’s neighbor (and Hitler’s birthplace) Austria.

The similarities between the BDS movement and the beginnings of Nazism are stunning and too obvious to miss. Obviously, that's of no concern to Europe.

Labels: Austria, BDS, Germany, Nazis

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:18 PM