For being pro-Palestine, German media giant tells employees to find another job

Berlin (QNN)- Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Axel Springer, a Berlin-based agency, told the company’s 16,000 employees to find another job if they have a problem with an Israeli flag being raised outside the company headquarters in Berlin.

Workers who complained about an Israeli flag being posted outside Europe’s largest digital publishing house should look for new jobs, Axel Springer CEO told employees on Thursday, June 17.

“I think, and I’m being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after antisemitic demonstrations, should look for a new job,” the CEO said in a video conference with employees around the world.

The Berlin-based Axel Springer, which was founded in West Germany in 1946, is the largest digital publisher in Europe.

Itt owns Bild, Die Welt, Business Insider, Politico Europe and many other news brands, as well as Israel’s largest classified-ads website, Yad2.

“We support the Jewish people and the right of existence of the State of Israel” is listed as one of Axel Springer’s five essential values on its website.

“After these weeks of terrible antisemitic demonstrations, we at our building headquarters said next to the European flag, and the German flag, [and] the Berlin flag, let’s raise for one week the Israeli flag as a gesture of solidarity,” he said. “We do not accept these kinds of aggressive antisemitic movements.”

Some people said they did not want to work for a company that does such a thing, Döpfner said.

“So, I think that is also a good point… This person does not fit the company and its values,” he said. “It’s very simple.”

Döpfner said he welcomed “critical questions” and that some of those complaining had good points, which he responded to.

“But this fundamental opposition to it leaves the spectrum” of acceptable responses, Döpfner said.

The Israeli flag was put up in front of the headquarters after there were pro-Palestinian demonstrations across Germany, chanting slogans in support of Palestine following Israeli 11-day aggression on the Gaza Strip, which started on May 10 and ended with a ceasefire brokered by mediator Egypt on May 21, killing at least 279 Palestinians, including 69 children and 40 women and injuring 1,910 others.

19 families in the Gaza Strip have been wiped off the population civil registry during Israel’s 11-day aggression, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, including 41 children and 25 women.