More Germans demand that the BS movement be recognized as what it is - a new brand of very ugly anti-Semitism. The debate around BS anti-Semitism was sparked by hate mail sent to the Israeli ambassador to Berlin, Yakov
Hadas-Handelsman, which included praise of Hitler.
As i24 news reports:
"Those who say the BDS movement isn't anti-Semitic just don't want to look harder," claimed MP Volker Beck of the Green party, who admitted to be stunned by the official stance. "This group isn't just critical of Israel. You can hear in many of their statements that their target isn't the occupation, rather the very existence of Israel."
"Any criticism which blames Israel for being on the stronger side in this conflict is illegitimate," he continued. "I think we have to criticize the occupation and the enlargement of settlements, but if you are questioning Israel's right to exist or not seeing correctly its security challenges, that must be because its the homeland of the Jews, and that's anti-Semitism."
