Court orders Deutsche Welle to reinstate second Palestinian journalist

Court orders Deutsche Welle to reinstate second Palestinian journalist
Ali Abunimah

Rights and Accountability 6 September 2022 Monday was a “date for celebrations,” Farah Maraqa wrote.
The Palestinian-Jordanian journalist had just won her lawsuit against Deutsche
Welle.
The German state broadcaster was ordered by the Berlin labor court to reinstate her
and pay all her legal costs.
The decisive victory “suggests that the court recognized that Farah’s termination,
based on a controversial investigation and unfounded allegations of anti-Semitism
related to reports published before her employment contract, was illegal,” said the
European Legal Support Center.
ELSC assisted Maraqa in her fight for justice and is working with other journalists in
the same situation.
Maraqa was among seven Arab journalists fired by Deutsche Welle in February
following an official smear campaign accusing them of anti-Jewish bigotry because of
comments or criticisms about Israel.
This is the second court victory related to the politically motivated purge.
In July, a labor court in Bonn ruled that Deutsche Welle unlawfully fired Maram
Salem, another Palestinian journalist at the network, based on false accusations of
anti-Semitism.
A third case has been settled out of court, while the others are still pending,
according to ELSC.
“Clear message”
The firings came following the publication of a report commissioned by Deutsche
Welle to look into alleged anti-Semitism at the network.
Written by Ahmad Mansour, a Palestinian-German psychologist with close ties to the
Israel lobby, and Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a former German justice
minister, the report accused the journalists of anti-Jewish bigotry because of
comments and views critical of Israel.

Mansour’s anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and pro-Israel views have made him a darling of
German media and state-funded institutions, as he offers them cover for their own
racist perspectives.
“It is a relief that the judge ruled in Farah’s favor and held Deutsche Welle
accountable for this illegal dismissal,” ELSC director Giovanni Fassina said. “We
hope this sends a clear message that they should stop their censorship practices.”
Fassina added that the case illustrated how institutionalization of the so-called IHRA
definition of anti-Semitism – which the report relied on – “can lead to severe
infringements upon freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”
Promoted by Israel and its lobby, the IHRA definition conflates criticism of Israel, on
the one hand, with anti-Jewish bigotry, on the other. It has become the Israel lobby’s
key weapon in North America and Europe to enforce censorship about Israel’s crimes
against Palestinians.
“Code of conduct”
Despite its court defeats, there is little sign that Deutsche Welle is backing down from
its institutionalized anti-Palestinian policies.
A new compulsory “code of conduct” for Deutsche Welle employees mandates
support for Israel.
“Freedom, democracy and human rights are cornerstones of our journalistic and
development message and profile,” the code of conduct states.
“We advocate the values of freedom and, wherever we are, take independent and
clear positions, especially against any and all kinds of discrimination including
sexism, racism and antisemitism. Due to Germany’s history, we have a special
obligation towards Israel.”
“Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust is also a reason for which we
support the right of Israel to exist,” the document asserts.
Israel’s claim that it has a “right to exist” as a Jewish state on the land of the
Palestinians is in effect an assertion that it has a “right” to ethnically
cleanse Palestinians and subject them to racist laws aimed at preserving Jewish
demographic and political supremacy.
Deutsche Welle’s verbal sleight of hand equates compulsory, unconditional support
for Israel’s regime of occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism – an edifice built
and maintained on systemic violence and racism – with anti-racism.
One cannot support “freedom, democracy and human rights” on the one hand, while
also supporting Israel’s racist state ideology Zionism on the other.
In contemporary Germany, however, the German government’s extermination of
millions of Jews during World War II means that Palestinians now have to be

subjected to Israeli-Zionist occupation, killing, forced displacement and colonization,
in order to expiate German guilt.
This is a deeply hypocritical position that not only means Germans have learned
nothing from their forebears’ crimes, but are happy to impose the costs for those
crimes on those who are evidently considered lesser humans.
The racist hierarchy of humanity is evident in the fact that Deutsche Welle expresses
no “special obligation,” say, to Namibia or Tanzania, on whose territory
Germany perpetrated horrific genocides decades before bringing this same barbarity
home to the European continent.
The code of conduct states that it is a “binding set of rules for all Deutsche Welle
employees” and encourages workers to confidentially report suspected infringements
– hardly an atmosphere where free expression and journalistic exploration of
difficult issues can flourish.
Those who are found in breach may be disciplined or fired.
The compulsory anti-Palestinian racism that Deutsche Welle imposes on its
employees means that even when those wrongly fired are reinstated, they will
continue to work in an environment that dehumanizes them just because of who they
are.
Nonetheless, Maraqa’s victory, like Salem’s in July, is a milestone in the fight to end
officially sanctioned racism and bigotry in Germany.