Germany’s ruling coalition parties and the opposing CDU have agreed on a resolution that would make organisations deemed antisemitic ineligible for public funding. A growing number of critics say the current draft resolution threatens freedom of expression and endangers Jewish life in Germany.

German coalition government unites on antisemitism resolution

Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) coalition, alongside the opposing Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have agreed on a draft of a new antisemitism resolution. Germany has recorded a spike in antisemitic attacks since the Hamas' attacks on October 7 and Israel's consequent war in Palestine.

The law has been in discussion for over a year and will be put to debate on the Bundestag floor this week. If the current version of the law is passed it would mean that any organisation which "questions the right of Israel to exist or calls for a boycott of Israel" would no longer be eligible to receive public funding. 

The new law follows Germany's 2019 decision to designate the international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement as antisemitic. Currently, any organisation in Germany which publicly supports the BDS movement, an international movement to “end international support for Israeli violations of international law by forcing companies, institutions and governments to change their policies”, is banned from receiving funding from the federal government.

In "particularly bad cases" the new law would also give schools and universities the authority to expel pupils or ex-matriculate students who were considered to have been antisemitic, with the resolution aiming to "protect, preserve and strengthen Jewish life in Germany”. 

President of the German-Israeli Society Volker Beck said that the new draft law sent a “clear signal” that Germany had a special responsibility to protect Jewish life.

Academics draw up alternative law against antisemitism

However, many Jewish people in Germany feel that the proposed law does not reflect their concerns. 

When an initial draft of the law first surfaced in August, since then only a “few details” have been changed according to taz, hundreds of Jewish academics and artists in Germany said that the resolution would not protect Jewish life, but endanger it. Israeli human rights organisations, Amnesty International and Medic International also voiced concern.

Critics also point out that the resolution focuses on areas which are dependent on government funding, such as the arts, culture and academia, not because antisemitism is more prevalent in these areas, but because dependency on funding means that sanctions would have the greatest impact.

Now, in response to the most recent draft, a group of Jewish and non-Jewish academics have composed a 16-point alternative law, which has been published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The outline includes the suggestion that the state should not be able to authoritatively determine what constitutes antisemitism, which should be a matter for academic and societal reflection while using various international definitions as a guide, such as the definition used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

According to its authors, their alternative law shows “how the state and civil society can protect Jewish life in its entirety and within the framework of the law, without playing minorities against each other,” and argues that policies to prevent antisemitism and racism demand a “a pluralistic self-image and the commitment of a democratically strengthened civil society".

Since FAZ published the alternative law, over 3.250 further academics, authors, artists, notable figures and organisations, including Oxfam, Amnesty International, Luisa Neubauer and Wolfgang Tillmans, have signed a petition in support.

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