After ‘Post’ report, German MP to quit BDS NGO if it does not reject BDS

"If the German-Palestinian Society does not distance itself from the BDS campaign, I will leave it."

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Olaf in der Beek MdB in front of Reichstag (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Olaf in der Beek MdB in front of Reichstag
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Following a recent Jerusalem Post report, German politician Olaf in der Beek on Wednesday confirmed a letter in which he threatened to resign from the German-Palestinian Society, a hardcore BDS organization targeting Israel, if the group does not reject the “antisemitic” pressure campaign.
“My letter to the president of the German-Palestinian Society proves my clear stance against antisemitism and the BDS movement. If the German-Palestinian Society does not distance itself from the BDS campaign, I will leave it,” the Free Democratic Party (FDP) MP told the Post.
The Post first reported Wednesday on in der Beek’s membership in the German-Palestinian Society. Numerous Post queries sent to the president of the Society Nazih Musharbash and all members of the executive board of the organization were not returned. The Post asked Musharbash if he planned to reject BDS in to the letter.
The Post first exposed a group of German MPs who are members of the German-Palestinian Society’s advisory board. Some of the most hardcore anti-Israel MPs in the Bundestag are members of the board. Take the example of Christine Buchholz, an MP for the German Left Party, who has defended the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah in their violent terrorism war against the Jewish state.
Other members of the Society include Social Democratic MP Aydan Özogus and Green Party MP Omid Nouripour, the latter of whom co-sponsored a parliamentary initiative in 2013 to punish Jewish products from the West Bank with a labeling system. The Post has sent press queries to the Green Party and Social Democrats regarding their members’ roles in the society.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) MP Matthias Hauer took the MPs to task for their membership in the anti-Israel NGO, tweeting: “The members of the advisory board could have known / suspected this months ago.”
His tweet pointed to a screenshot of an article authored by Musharbash claiming the Bundestag anti-BDS resolution seeks to “silence Palestinian solidarity groups.” The Bundestag’s anti-BDS resolution declared BDS antisemitic in May. The FDP initiated the resolution. Musharbash and his organization launched a fierce lobby campaign to prevent the Bundestag from passing the anti-BDS resolution.
Hauer wrote that if the MPs had any doubts about Musharbash they should read his organization’s paper that announced in September 2019 in “clear language for BDS and against Israel.”
German Jews have urged the MPs to resign from the anti-Israel organization.
Margaret Traub, the chairwoman of the Jewish community in Bonn, told the Post that NGOs like the German-Palestinian Society are a “shame for Germany. The virus of antisemitism unfortunately never disappears but mutates. Anti-Zionism is the new socially acceptable variant of antisemitism.”


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