Analysis: The mood in Germany: Kristallnacht ‘nein,’ BDS ‘ja’
Each year on November 9, Berlin remembers the lethal anti-Semitic pogroms carried out by Germans against Jews and synagogues in 1938 – the so-called Kristallnacht anniversary. The commemoration events punctuate German cities and towns and are largely decoupled from Israel.
“If Israel’s existence is up for consideration, that is actually a scandal that we must deal with today. But we are, so to speak, now present to stop the 1938 Kristallnacht,” German- Jewish journalist Henryk M. Broder said sarcastically.
Broder neatly captured the ongoing absurdity in segments of German society that seek to dismantle Israel while immersing themselves in Kristallnacht remembrance.
This year, Israel took an atypical diplomatic step to breathe some change into Holocaust remembrance in Germany.
In response to the city of Munich sponsoring a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions lecture against Israel, the head of Israel’s consulate in Munich, Dan Shaham, told The Jerusalem Post: “The racist, anti-Semitic character of this movement, which calls for a boycott of Israel, was again made clear two days before the Kristallnacht remembrance.”
NOTE: I remember reading a Finnish Leftist blog some ten years ago, an exchange between anti-israel nutjobs lamenting the fact that while they were in Germany visiting with their political allies, the German Leftists stated that they wouldn’t dare move against Israel like the Left does elsewhere in Europe (BDS etc) because of Germany’s history during WWII. Boycotting Jews was still too taboo of an act to consider, I guess that’s now changing.
This story first appeared on: Tundra Tabloids
