Germany condemns BDS movement as antisemitic and akin to ‘terrifying’ Nazi campaigns

'Don't buy stickers on Israeli products could be associated with Nazi calls not to buy from Jews'

Left wing Israelis hold slogans during a protest against Eurovision on May 14, 2019 in Tel Aviv. (AFP/Getty)

German lawmakers have condemned a movement that calls for a cultural boycott of Israel, saying it is anti-semitic and reminiscent of the Nazi campaign against the Jews.

In a vote on Friday, the German parliament said the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which wants to place financial pressure on Israel over its occupation of Palestinian land, uses anti-semitic tactics.

"The argumentation patterns and methods used by the BDS movement are anti-semitic," read the motion submitted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party (CDU), their Social Democrat coalition partners (SPD) as well as the Greens and Free Democrats.

The move comes after BDS, which advocates boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli businesses, universities and cultural institutions, called upon artists and pop groups to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

During the vote, which took place on the evening of the music show’s final, German MPs likened BDS campaigns to “the most terrifying phase of German history” when an estimated six million Jews were murdered during the holocaust.

The German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany. (AP)

"The 'don't buy' stickers of the BDS movement on Israeli products [could be associated] with the Nazi call 'don't buy from Jews', and other corresponding graffiti on facades and shop windows," the non-binding resolution said.

BDS have criticised the motion as anti-Palestinian and said it defies international law. "The German establishment is entrenching its complicity in Israel's crimes of military occupation, ethnic cleansing, siege and apartheid," the group said on Twitter.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision. "I hope that this decision will bring about concrete steps and I call upon other countries to adopt similar legislation," he said in a statement.

BDS calls for economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land, grant Arab citizens equal rights and recognise the right of return to Palestinian refugees. It has called on artists, music fans and broadcasters to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest, arguing it amounts to "whitewashing" Israel's policies towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

A number of artists said they would boycott the show, including Wolf Alice, Roger Waters and Peter Gabriel, all of whom signed an open letter. Madonna, however, has said she will still perform.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has seats in the German Bundestag, submitted their own motion calling for a total ban of the BDS in Germany. That motion was defeated.