BERLIN (EJP)---The Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have expressed outrage over Thursday’s vote in the Bundestag,  Germany’s federal parliament, that condemned Israel over the Mavi Marmara incident on May 31 and backed calls for an international investigation of the Turkish-led pro-Hamas Gaza-bound  flotilla. 

"Hypocrisy and double standard immorality won the day in the Bundestag," said  Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, respectively founder and dean and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations.

"We heard no such unanimity from German politicians when Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists targeted Israeli civilians, including Holocaust survivors and their families," they said, adding, "We are not surprised that the Left Party, some of whose members support Hamas and Hezbollah and have had the audacity to liken Israel to Nazis are in lockstep with efforts to demonize the Jewish State, but we are deeply shocked that mainstream German parties rushed to judgment by expressing support for yet another UN-led judicial lynching of Israel, even before the Middle East’s only democracy completed its own investigation."

The Bundestag resolution also called for Hamas to be brought into the negotiating process.

It criticized Israel for "violating the principle of  proportionality" by employing violence against the activists aboard the Mavi Marmara ship.

"The blockade of Gaza is counterproductive and does not serve the security interests of Israel," it said.

The precedent-setting resolution gained a united support from both the conservative Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel,  its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), the governing liberal coalition partner  Free Democratic Party (FDP), the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party.

The Bundestag resolution was angrily condemned by the Central Council of Jews in Germany."This behavior is unparalleled in the history of the friendship between Germany and Israel and worsens the conflict in the Middle East, instead of facilitating peace prospects," it said in a statement.

"It is based on incomplete information and a mixture of half-truths and public prejudices."

An Israeli diplomat, quoted by The Jerusalem Post, said privately that the political climate has dramatically shifted against Israel in Germany. Following the Shoah, the genocide of European Jews by the Nazis in WWII, Germany's main political parties have staunchly supported Israel and shunned Hamas for refusing to recognize the Jewish state. 

Wolfgang Gehrcke, the Left Party’s foreign policy spokesman who has attended pro-Hamas and pro-Hizbullah rallies, told Reuters, “This marks a profound shift toward Israel in Germany.”

Three Left Party MPs were aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31.