Arab League flag
Arab League flagiStock

The Arab League called Sunday on the German parliament to rescind a resolution that condemned a boycott movement against Israel as anti-Semitic.

The call by the pan-Arab bloc comes after the Bundestag passed a motion on Friday against the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, warning that its actions were reminiscent of the Nazis' campaign against Jews.

The BDS movement, founded in 2005, has called for boycotts of Israeli businesses, performing artists, scholars, the schools. The movement has also called for the divestment of companies which do business with Israel or Israeli firms.

The Arab League's assistant secretary-general for Palestinian affairs Saeed Abu Ali said in a statement the Bundestag's motion against BDS is "regrettable... unjustified... (and) biased" in favor of Israel.

He urged Germany's parliament to "reverse this erroneous step and support the Palestinian people's right for liberation."

The non-binding resolution said the BDS movement's "Don't Buy" stickers on Israeli products revive memories of the Nazis' slogan 'Don't buy from Jews', and other graffiti on shop facades and windows.

The Bundestag also pledged to reject any financial support for the boycott movement, and to prevent BDS and its partners holding events on its premises.

The multi-party motion was backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU-CSU bloc, the center-left Social Democratic Party, the liberal FDP and the left-wing Greens.