Before the trial against him began on Tuesday, Gil Ofarim stuck to the accusation that he was subjected to anti-Semitic hostility in a Leipzig hotel. »I know what happened to me. For me it wasn’t about the employee, but about anti-Semitism. “I’m glad that a lot will now come out that hasn’t been said or written before,” he told “Welt am Sonntag.”
The 41-year-old is accused of false suspicion and slander as well as false assurance under oath. According to a report from a law firm that spoke to 24 witnesses in the hotel and evaluated 22 video camera recordings, there was no truth to his allegations.
At the beginning of October 2021, Ofarim made allegations of anti-Semitism against an employee of the hotel in a video distributed on social media.
In the cell phone video that Ofarim recorded in front of the hotel, he reported that he initially stood in line at the reception. Other guests were given priority. He was later asked by a hotel employee to take off his Star of David necklace in order to be allowed to check in. According to the Leipzig Regional Court, Ofarim is said to have made the same statement to the police.
The case attracted nationwide attention and initially led to numerous expressions of solidarity with Ofarim. However, the public prosecutor’s office classifies his statements as untruthful. The investigation against the hotel employee was discontinued; he is a co-plaintiff in the current trial.
“I didn’t even begin to expect what this video would trigger,” Ofarim now told “Welt am Sonntag.” But he still stands by it and would take it up and spread it again.
The musician also reported that he was beaten up last year while he was talking on the phone in line at a bank: “A man walked past me, looked at me and kept walking. Then he turned around and struck out of the blue. I had my cell phone and wallet in my hand. I fell down and lost consciousness for a moment.”
He called for help and asked them to call the police, Ofarim continued: “There were people around me who recorded this on their cell phones. Nobody held him, he managed to get away.”