Watchdog: German media carries out anti-Palestine purge

Berlin (QNN)- Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that German media has been carrying out what it described as an “anti-Arab purge”, targeting Arab and Palestinian journalists in German media.

“Ever since the German Parliament passed a resolution describing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel as anti-Semitic, the country has seen growing campaigns to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and to delegitimize criticism of Israeli violations against Palestinians”, the watchdog stated.

“This not only poses a serious risk to freedom of speech and expression, but it has also proven dangerous in terms of weaponizing accusations of anti-Semitism against public figures from minority backgrounds.”

Earlier this month, Deutsche Welle (DW), the German public state-owned international broadcaster, suspended five Arab journalists, including two Palestinian citizens, over posts, criticizing ‘Israel’.

German media sources said the charges against the journalists are related to posts that they shared on their personal accounts on social media in addition to old articles published on their personal blogs and Arabic newspapers. Some of the writings date back to 2000 and some were deleted. The writings criticize the behavior of the occupation state of ‘Israel’ and its settlers’ violence.

DW also suspended its cooperation with Jordanian media partner, Roya TV, claiming the broadcaster spreads anti-Semitic content and caricatures on social media.

Jordan’s Roya Media Group decried the campaign, launched by German media against it and called for distinguishing between criticism of ‘Israel’ and antisemitism.

DW has long been criticized for its biased reporting on Israeli violations against Palestinians.

Last May, during Israel’s deadly aggression on the Gaza Strip, DW distributed an internal memo to its journalists, forbidding them to make, or let any guest make any connection between the state of ‘Israel’ and colonialism.

In the reporting guide sent to the staff, DW’s editorial board banned its reporters and editors from covering Israeli crimes of “apartheid” and persecution of Palestinians.

The two-page reporting guide, which was leaked and shared on social media, underlined that the Holocaust’s legacy and Germany’s special responsibility towards ‘Israel’ remain cornerstones of the country’s constitution and its foreign policy.

“As DW, we never question Israel’s right to exist as a state or allow people in our coverage to do so,” the broadcaster’s Editor-in-Chief Manuela Kasper-Claridge told the staff.

“We never refer to an Israeli ‘apartheid’ or an ‘apartheid regime’ in Israel. We also avoid referring to ‘colonialism’ or ‘colonialists’,” the document also noted.

“We respect freedom of speech and opinion and people’s right to criticize any of the sides involved. However, criticism of Israel becomes antisemitism when it attempts to tarnish, discredit and delegitimize the state of Israel or Jewish people and culture per se.”