BDS in Germany

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.