Germany: Legal victory for the BDS movement Israel today

The German Federal Administrative Court has issued a ruling that is a significant defeat to the efforts of Israel and the Jewish communities in Germany to prevent the pro-Palestinian anti-Semitic boycott movement, the BDS, from using public halls to hold events to spread the movement's ideas.

The federal court yesterday (Thursday) dismissed the appeal filed by the Attorney General against a district court decision that overturned the Munich municipality's ruling not to allow the BDS movement to hold a hearing in a city hall.

Munich was among the first cities in Germany to decide as early as 2017 to ban BDS events in city halls.

A pro-Palestinian source has filed a lawsuit against the municipality, saying the ban violates freedom of expression.

In 2019, the German Bundestag adopted a resolution stating that the BDS movement is an antisemitic movement.

On the basis of this determination, public authorities were called upon to refrain from granting expression space to the movement.

A year ago the Bayern district court ruled against the Munich municipality's decision and ruled that although the BDS movement has antisemitic characteristics, freedom of opinion and expression in Germany also includes antisemitic positions and local authorities can ban events in municipal halls only if there is a threat to public order.

As stated, the appeal has now been dismissed by the Supreme Court of the Administrative Courts, which has given backing to the judgment given in the matter.

The ruling effectively empties the Bundestag decision, which was legally invalid in the first place, and gives a seal to the existence of antisemitic events, including events calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.

The heads of the Jewish community in Germany expressed complete disappointment and misunderstanding regarding the court's decision.

The president of the Central Committee of Jews in Germany issued a statement stating: "Freedom of opinion is a high value.

But anti-Semitism is not an opinion.

Hence the decision of the Munich Municipality should have been welcomed.

People who spread anti-Semitism in their hostility to Israel should not get on stage.

The court's ruling is a blow to the fight against anti-Semitism and the unity of society. "

The Jewish Committee in Germany called on the federal and district authorities in Germany to quickly formulate a legal basis for banning BDS incidents in public halls, in order to give legal effect to the Bundestag decision.

The government commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, reacted to the court's decision by saying that it was a loss of opportunity to prohibit in principle the provision of public halls to the BDS movement.

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