The Green Party faction in the City Council of Bonn, in a surprise reversal, has agreed to join a local association formed to resist anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and to erect a memorial here to Bonn Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
But the national organization of the Green Party, an opposition party in the Bundestag, is standing by its original refusal to endorse the memorial. The reason, according to observers, is that the Greens are loath to align themselves with a group fighting anti-Zionism in the Federal Republic. Several influential party leaders have gone on record as being anti-Zionist although they insist they are not anti-Semitic.
The Bonn chapter of the Green Party took the same position. The Association, comprised mainly of Jews, has been in the forefront of the campaign to erect the memorial on the site of the former Bonn synagogue. There has been resistance on the part of local authorities who would prefer to use the site as a parking lot. The Jewish community told the Greens that only if they join the association could the project be advanced. In the aftermath of the Green Party’s decision to join, its representatives will meet with Jewish community leaders here later this week to discuss the Green’s attitude toward Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
