German Domestic Intelligence Agency Designates BDS a ‘Suspected Extremist Case’
Anti-Israel demonstration supporting the BDS movement, Paris France, June 8, 2024. Photo: Claire Serie / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
Germany’s federal domestic intelligence agency has classified the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel as a “suspected extremist case.”
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Tuesday issued a new report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), which according to German media found that the BDS movement has links to “secular Palestinian extremism.”
The intelligence agency also said there were “sufficiently strong factual indications” that BDS “violates the idea of international understanding” by challenging Israel’s right to exist, German news site Watson reported.
The BfV report noted that BDS calls for “an end to the state existence of Israel” and that since the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, groups associated with the movement “frequently took part in anti-Israel gatherings.”
BDS seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
The German intelligence report, which has been confirmed by several German news outlets, said that BDS is not a homogeneous association, party, or organization.
The BfV’s designation allows the German government to more closely monitor BDS activities as it’s now regarded as a suspected extremist movement.
Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society, praised BfV’s new designation of the BDS movement.
“All forms of antisemitism must be fought equally consistently,” Beck said in a statement, according to the German Jewish daily newspaper The Jüdische Allgemeine. “The trivialization of or even sympathy by some cultural institutions with BDS must finally stop! We need a debate here.”
The BfV’s action is not the first time the German government has acted against BDS. In 2019, Germany’s parliament voted to condemn BDS as antisemitic. Jeremy Issacharoff – Israel’s then-ambassador to Germany — heralded the move, writing on X/Twitter: “We welcome this initiative by its sponsors. It has broader European significance given that BDS makes no attempt to build coexistence and peace between Israel and its neighbors.”
While unveiling the new report this week, Faeser noted that Germany has experienced a steep spike in antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
“We absolutely have to break the spiral of escalations in the Middle East, leading to even more disgusting hatred of Jews here,” she said.
In the weeks following Oct. 7, Faeser challenged Muslim associations in Germany to condemn antisemitism without reservation and expressed support for deporting Hamas supporters from the country.
Germany is not the only country to act against BDS. Spain, Canada, and the Netherlands are among other nations that have passed anti-BDS legislation. In the US, 38 states have adopted laws, executive orders, or resolutions designed to discourage boycotts against Israel, according to Jewish Virtual Library.
BfV’s designation is a win in the fight against antisemitism. Even after the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, proponents of BDS have continued to call for a complete boycott of Israel, repeatedly referred to Israel’s defensive war in Gaza as “genocide,” and accused the Israeli military of war crimes.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, BDS “demonizes the Jewish state” and openly calls for policies that “if implemented, would result in the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state.”
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