• Boycotting Jews to prevent the boycott of Israel
    Middle East Eye | Shir Hever | Thursday 8 December 2016
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/boycotting-jews-prevent-boycott-israel-1644833546

    The German organisation Jewish Voice for Just Peace (JVJP) is a sister organisation of the US Jewish Voice for Peace and part of the coalition European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP). It was founded in 2003.

    Three weeks ago, the organisation - of which I am a board member - was shocked when it received a letter from its bank, the Bank for Social Economy based in Cologne, that it had decided to close JVJP’s account. No reason was given for the decision.

    But on Tuesday, the bank finally announced, in a second letter sent out by a spokesperson, the reason: JVJP supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

    This is the first time since World War Two that a German bank has closed the account of a Jewish organisation. The bank appears to have succumbed to pressure by Benjamin Weinthal, a correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, who has been waging a campaign to attack and delegitimise Palestinian solidarity groups in Germany for the last couple of years.

    Weinthal falsely accused the JVJP of being a “pro-Hamas” and an “anti-Semitic” organisation. The timing of his reporting has raised questions within our organisation about whether he was told by the bank that the account would be closed even before we met to discuss the situation, following the original letter, on 2 December.