BDS in Germany (summary, July 2010)

It would be troubling if Germans were all too eager to take up a campaign that reminds them
uncomfortably of the Nazi boycott of Jewish-owned businesses that was the harbinger of the
Holocaust. On April 1st, 1933, German police and SS troops stood guard over Jewish
businesses and put signs in shop windows reading “Kauft nicht bei Juden!” -- "Don't buy from
Jews!"

Precisely those individuals and organizations in Germany that normally stand on the side of
human rights are often those most concerned that a BDS campaign might be inappropriate
“in the context of German history.” They fear that in today's Germany, the BDS movement to
enforce international human rights could, due to German historical heritage, be exploited for
anti-Semitic or other racist purposes, that BDS might even be declared congruent with racist
movements like the Neo-Nazis.

Take the case of Hermann Dierkes, the mayoral candidate in the Rheinland city of Duisburg
for the Left Party, a progressive electoral party founded in 2007 that now has more than 10%
of seats in the German Parliament and has firmly opposed the war in Afghanistan. During the
assault on Gaza 2008/9, Dierkes dared to mention the Belem World Social Forum’s
recommendation to support BDS. The German press accused him of “pure anti-Semitism”
and “careless Nazi utterances”; the Christian Democratic Party warned of the "the Nazi
propaganda" of the Left Party, whose leadership then turned on Dierkes. For example, the
vice president of the Party’s fraction in the German Parliament told the press that Dierkes’
words "awake unspeakable associations and employ dubious clichés." Dierkes withdrew his
mayoral candidacy.

Those who are beginning to organize a BDS campaign in Germany tend to deemphasize the
word “boycott.” Yet there has long been a boycott against Israeli products in Germany,
because many members of the large immigrant communities from Palestine, Lebanon, Iran,
Turkey, Kurdistan, and other countries of the Near and Middle East avoid purchasing Israeli
products.

The Web site and blog Muslim Market (muslim-markt.de), founded in 1999 by two Shiite
brothers of Turkish descent, has a page called “Boykott-Aufrufe” (“calls to boycott”) with a
long list of products to boycott. Though the boycott by the immigrant community does not call
itself BDS and is not framed as a political campaign, the Muslim Market Website carries
many news articles regarding BDS campaigns worldwide.

Nor have the first non-immigrant German political consumer boycott campaigns on behalf of
Palestinian rights identified themselves as BDS. Already in 2002 the Women’s Network Near
East began a postcard campaign to require the clear marking of products produced in the
settlements.

The postcard campaign, which still continues, calls on consumers not to purchase Israeli
products until Israel ends the occupation and establishes a just and lasting peace with
Palestinians (http://www.frauennetzwerknahost.de).

In the summer of 2007, the organizations Jewish Voices for a Just Peace in the Near East
and the Berlin Working Group Near East protested against the “Israeli Weeks” sales
campaign of the German chain store Galleria Kaufhof. With 27 affiliates in Germany, Galleria
invited customers to go on “a culinary discovery trip through Israel” but did not inform
customers that some of the food items being sold, such as olive oil, honey, and sweets, had
been produced in occupied territories.
The firm even posted on its Website a map of “Israel” that showed Gaza, the West Bank, and
the Golan Heights as simply part of Israel. In Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg leaflets were
distributed outside Galleria stores urging customers not to buy the products from the
occupied territories. The Palestinian Delegation to Germany made a formal complaint against
Galleria, and mainstream German newspapers such as Frankfurter Rundschau and the
Springer publications wrote sarcastically about the phony map of “Israel,” which Galleria
quietly removed from its Website.

Also not officially part of the BDS campaign are two organizations that won a stunning victory
this past May when they succeeded in forcing Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, to
divest its 2% stake in Elbit Systems.
Pax Christi and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) have
long worked in support of Palestinian rights, and they mounted a long-term international
campaign against Elbit, an Israeli arms company that supplies the Israeli military and
provides components for the Apartheid Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory. Following
divestitures of Elbit in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland, IPPNW and Pax Christi
reminded

Deutsche Bank shareholders of the international struggle against apartheid in South Africa
and asked them to vote “no confidence” in the board of directors because of the Bank’s
failure to divest from Elbit,. Outside the shareholders’ meeting, activists held a lively
demonstration. In explaining its decision to divest Elbit, Deutsche Bank listed numerous
standards and international ethical commitments to which the Bank is party, highlighting how
Elbit investments would violate them all – a statement that could become a landmark position
guiding other German, European and global finance institutions.

Previously, in August 2009, Pax Christi and IPPNW joined together with organizations such
as the German Section of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the German-Palestinian Society,
Jewish Voices for a Just Peace in the Near East, and the Palestinian Community in Germany
to form the German Coordination Circle Palestine Israel (KoPI). This is the successor
organization to the German Section of the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and has
a mission not only to struggle against the wall, but also against the occupation itself,
including the blockade of Gaza. Not all of KoPI’s member organizations explicitly support
BDS, but KoPi carries a BDS page on its Website (www.kopi-endederbesatzung.de).

Over the past year, local BDS groups have been started up in several cities in Germany.
None has more than twenty activists, most with backgrounds in various German peace and
social justice and/or immigrant organizations. The German BDS groups have not yet worked
in coordination; however, KoPI has organized a seminar at the end of June to bring BDS
activists from throughout Germany together with Swiss, Dutch, and Palestinian activists to
discuss coordination of the campaign.

So far, mainly the Berlin BDS group has carried out local actions such as asking Leonard
Cohen when he had a concert in Berlin to cancel his Tel Aviv gig (he didn’t) and organizing
bike rallies with leafleting; the group has recently started a monthly information stand in
downtown Berlin. Initiatives have included approaches to managers and customers of “Bio”
stores selling organic foods exported by Israel as well as actions outside the offices of
weapons firms engaged in sales to or purchases from Israel.
Among the latter is the Thyssen-Krupp group that builds the HDW nuclear-capable Dolphin
submarines, partially subsidized by the German government and exported to Israel for use
by the military. For the fifth anniversary of BDS on July 9th, the Berlin BDS Group is planning
an action at the Berlin offices of Rheinmetall Defense, a German armaments firm that
recently began a joint venture with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to supply Israeli-
produced Heron drones to the Bundeswehr (the German military) for use in Afghanistan, with
the German pilots being trained in Israel. As Rheinmetall is an automotive as well as defense
company with factories in three factories in Germany and more than 100 subsidiaries
worldwide, further research may point the way towards a related consumer boycott
campaign.

Small groups of students and faculty in Germany have started supporting the Palestinian
Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). The Berlin group is
strongly supported by Israeli student activists living in Berlin and was involved in
communications with U.S. philosopher Judith Butler, who on June 19th rejected the Civil
Courage Prize to be awarded to her on Christopher Street Day in Berlin by the gay and
lesbian organization Berlin Pride. Dr. Butler criticized the mainstream gay organizations in
Berlin, saying “I must distance myself from complicity with racism, including anti-Muslim
racism,” and she said that the award should instead go to anti-racist and anti-islamophobic
gay and lesbian organizations in Berlin.

Over the past year, the concept of BDS has gradually won at least the tolerance of many in
the progressive and left political community in Germany. Two Left Party Members of
Parliament were on the Gaza Flotilla and one of them, Annette Groth, spoke out in behalf of
BDS on June 17th in Berlin. Early in 2010, the local Left Party in Munich launched a boycott
campaign against Soda Club, which sells a device for carbonating drinking water. The
product is erroneously marked “made in Israel,” though actually manufactured in the
settlement Maale Adumin. In February, the Hamburg customs office objected to Soda Club’s
attempt to import into Germany under the EU special customs arrangement with Israel, and
the European Court of Justice then ruled against Soda Club in a potentially precedent-setting
decision.

Following the assault on Gaza in 2008/9 and the attack this year on the Free Gaza Flotilla,
Germans may be ready for a broad-based BDS campaign.

During the KoPI seminar at the end of June, it was decided to explore the feasibility of
launching two nationwide BDS campaigns in Germany: one addressing German consumers
and one targeting a German weapons manufacturer. The consumer campaign would draw
upon the prior work of one of the well-established European/Swiss campaigns such as
against Agrexco or Veolia. The divestiture campaign against a German weapons
manufacturer would target a firm that either provides weapons to Israel or that collaborates
with Israel in weapons manufacture and marketing; a boycott of consumer goods produced
by the weapons manufacturing firm or of the bank(s) that invest in the firm may be
considered.
The BDS campaign would invite German peace and justice organizations and progressive
political parties to become partners in the campaign against the weapons firm and would of
course also inform them of other BDS activities. Local BDS groups would be encouraged not
only to support the two national campaigns but also to continue with local initiatives such as
against the “Bio” food shops, which might also develop into a national German campaign.

There may also be local actions against the Ahava cosmetics firm as part of the international
campaign raising awareness that the upscale “Dead Sea” beauty products are manufactured
in illegally occupied territory. Work on academic and performer boycotts will continue.

With the assistance of the Swiss BDS campaign, a BDS handbook for Germany will be
produced and the Internet presence of BDS in Germany expanded. Over the coming year,
BDS activists hope to identify supporters in the German labor movement; the assistance of
international unions could be helpful in this regard. Possibilities for closer work together with
immigrant groups in Germany will also be explored.
Visits by Palestinian and Israeli activists to further explain Palestinian civil society’s call for
BDS to German progressive organizations could be very useful. In the arena of public
discourse, the focus must be to remind Germans of the historical responsibility to ensure that
Germany is not complicit with human rights violations anywhere in the world
V.i.S.d.P.: Martin Forberg, Berlin