BERLIN - The international banking giant Commerzbank closed a boycott Israel account in Germany, The Jerusalem Post has learned. A highly reliable source told the Post that the account has been “dealt with” and the bank notified the account holder over a month ago.

The closure of the anti-Israel account because of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) activity targeting Israel is believed to be the first instance of a German-owned bank taking action against BDS.

"I welcome and commend the decision by Commerzbank and other European banks to close the accounts of BDS organizations. This is the right thing to do from both a legal, financial and moral perspective. The BDS campaign, which seeks the destruction of Israel, is discriminatory, anti-Semitic and anti-peace, and often has connections to extremist and terrorist groups,” Gilad Erdan, the public security minister, told the Post on Tuesday.

Erdan, who is tasked with combating BDS for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration, added “I call on other banks to follow Commerzbank's example, particularly those with connections to official state bodies which claim to oppose BDS. I will

continue to work to expose the true face of the BDS extremists and their supporters, and to ensure that they face the full consequences of their actions."

The anti-Israel and pro-BDS website “Der Semit” lists its account in a small town in the state of Hesse, where Commerzbank’s headquarters are located in Frankfurt. BDS seeks to pressure Israel to make concessions to the Palestnians.

In response to a Post query, the Commerzbank account holder for the pro-BDS website in Hesse declined to comment.

According to German bank law, financial institutions can summarily terminate accounts without providing a reason. As a general rule, the account holder has a grace period of 90 days to wind down financial transactions before the closure.

Commerzbank has offices and branches in more than 50 countries, according to its website.

The anti-Israel extremist, who owns the BDS website, lost a court case to the prominent German Jewish journalist Henryk M. Broder in 2007. Broder termed the owner of the website as part of “experts in applied Jewphobia."

The closure of the BDS account may have ramifications that will ripple across Germany, where there are scores of anti-Israel groups that promote BDS and maintain bank accounts within the Federal Republic.

In February, the Post reported exclusively that the French bank Paribas shut the account of the BDS Campaign in Germany which was held by the bank’s subsidiary DAB in Munich. German banks that provide accounts to BDS groups range from Sparkasse to Deutsche PostBank to the Stuttgart-based BW bank in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg.

Erdan’s comment urging banks with “connections to official state bodies” is an apparent reference to the BW bank’s governmental ties.

The city of Stuttgart owns nearly 20% of the BW bank. The state government ow

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