BDS activists
BDS activistsiStock

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Sunday condemned the resolution passed by the German parliament describing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel as anti-Semitic and racist in nature.

The PLO Executive Committee said in a statement that the resolution was "an attack against the Palestinian people and its legitimate rights," adding that the BDS movement is part of the fight of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation regime, apartheid and racial segregation.

The Executive Committee further said the decision of the German parliament is "racist and violates international law, human rights and the right of our (Palestinian) people to fight the occupation and ethnic cleansing."

The statement further claimed that the German resolution also serves the “Deal of the Century”, the American initiative to resolve the conflict, and encourages the “occupation” to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people, including settlement expansion, Judaization, further enforcement of the apartheid regime, and a denial of the rights of the Palestinian people, which are reflected in the right of return of the “refugees”, the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty with “Al-Quds” (Jerusalem) as its capital.

The German resolution calls on the government to refrain from any support to organizations that are involved in boycott activities against Israel.

“All-encompassing calls for boycotts in their radical nature lead to the stigmatization of Israeli citizens and citizens of Jewish faith as a whole," the resolution reads. "This is unacceptable and worthy of the sharpest condemnation.”

According to the resolution, “The arguments and methods of the BDS movement are anti-Semitic”.

Similar to the PLO Executive Committee, the group’s Palestinian National Council (PNC) on Saturday also condemned the German parliament's decision.

According to PNC, the decision of the German parliament is tantamount to encouraging and supporting the "occupation, settlement and racial discrimination" that Israel has been committing against Palestinian Authority Arabs for more than 71 years.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday welcomed the German move.

“I congratulate the German Bundestag on the important decision that recognizes the BDS as an anti-Semitic movement and declares that it is forbidden to fund it. I particularly appreciate the Bundestag's call on Germany to stop funding organizations working against Israel's existence. I hope that the decision will lead to concrete steps and call on other countries to adopt similar legislation,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.