The German financial capital of Frankfurt will no longer do business with any bank that conducts commercial activities with companies or organizations that support a boycott of the Jewish state.
The city council decided in August of last year to deny space for activities of the anti-Semitic BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement that targets Israel and seeks to isolate it from the world.
Now the city’s leaders are expanding all activities against BDS. Mayor Uwe Becker said the time had come to make a stand:
In the future, we will only work together with those banks, Volksbanks and savings banks, which in turn have no business relations with organizations of the anti-Semitic BDS movement or related parties.
At the core of the BDS movement is the delegitimization of the state of Israel, for which purpose boycott and defamation are used as a means. From self-proclaimed ‘department store police’, which brand Israeli merchandise in stores, intimidating traders, to intimidating artists who perform or want to perform in Israel, to disturbing events, a selection of a variety of BDS activities are available worldwide.
With their messages, the BDS movement uses the same language that Nazis once used to express: ‘Do not buy from Jews!’
Frankfurt’s move follows that made by civic leaders in the German capital Berlin just six months ago.
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, on that occasion mayor Michael Müller said he will personally stop all city support and space for groups that advocate BDS actions against Israel.
The Berlin mayor said, “BDS stands with antisemitic signs in front of Berlin businesses. Those are intolerable methods from the Nazi period. We will do everything possible to withdraw money and rooms for BDS’s anti-Israel agitation.”
Müller said he would also take possible legal actions against the “hate-driven al-Quds day march.” He said what would “be best is a ban” of the annual Iranian regime march calling for the destruction of Israel.
The mayor, previously under fire for his inaction toward BDS, said he will ensure there are “at a minimum strict ordinances and prosecution of all offenses” at the al-Quds march.
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