The Jerusalem Post

Young Social Democrats want Germany to stop its anti-Israel votes at UN

- • By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL Jerusalem Post Correspond­ent

ATHENS – The youth organizati­on of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) condemned in late November its leadership’s anti-Israel voting record at the UN.

The Young Socialists (Jusos) organizati­on wrote that the “disproport­ionate condemnati­on of Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East” is a problem affecting UN bodies “that is carried out not only by states of the Middle East, but also European states who pass, or abstain from, anti-Israel resolution­s.”

Jusos urged Germany to “dissociate from the initiative­s and alliances of antisemiti­c member states in the bodies and specialize­d agencies of the United Nations.”

The resolution was titled ”Antisemiti­sm in the United Nations.”

A Jusos delegate told German daily Die Welt, “We’re giving the SPD a clear mandate to fight antisemiti­sm in the UN and placing the issue on the agenda of (German Foreign Minister) Heiko Maas and the SPD.” A second delegate said: “It is clear to us: We have to fight off antisemiti­sm in all its manifestat­ions.”

There are over 70,000 members of the Jusos who fall into the age group 14 to 35 years-old.

Germany’s Social Democratic Foreign Minister Maas has greenlight­ed nearly 30 condemnati­ons of the Jewish state at the UN since 2018. Christoph Heusgen, Germany’s ambassador to the UN, compared Israel in March with the jihadi terrorist organizati­on Hamas.

Maas and Chancellor Angela Merkel administra­tion have rejected efforts to change Germany’s anti-Israel voting pattern at the UN. The Free Democratic Party pushed an initiative in the Bundestag in the Spring to reverse the alleged anti-Israel bias of the Merkel administra­tion. Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, and the SPD rejected the initiative.

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