Westdeutscher Rundfunk has finally decided against working with Nemi El-Hassan. The broadcaster announced this in a statement. Before that, the journalist had one Guest post in the Berlin newspaper published in which she criticized WDR for dealing with her in the past few weeks. As a reason for the decision, the broadcaster said: “There is no longer any trust for future cooperation.” The reason given by a spokeswoman for the station of the SZ, for example, was that the WDR only found out through the media that El-Hassan had withdrawn likes on controversial posts on the Internet, even though the station was “in close contact” with the presenter.
El-Hassan wrote in her guest post that she was claiming the right to criticize the Israeli government. This is not allowed in Germany with its Holocaust past. “I am and will remain a Palestinian, whether the German public agrees or not.”
The case of the employment of El-Hassan is related to anti-Semitism allegations. Originally, the journalist was supposed to moderate the science program “Quarks”. It was scheduled to start in November. the image-Zeitung had reported in the context of El-Hassan’s new task of her participation in an Al-Kuds demo in Berlin a few years ago. In the past, anti-Semitic slogans were repeatedly shouted at the annual Al-Kuds demonstrations in Berlin and symbols of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah movement were shown. El-Hassan had distanced himself from the demo in a statement after the media report. She is also accused of having liked posts that are critical of Israel on the Internet. One case involved terrorists breaking out of an Israeli maximum security prison.
The WDR had decided against El-Hassan as the presenter of “Quarks”. The reason given by the broadcaster was “that the dispute over her person has led to an inappropriate politicization of the renowned science program”. The ARD-Anstalt had then initially further checked whether it could possibly work as an author for “Quarks”.
On Tuesday, El-Hassan accused the WDR in her guest post that he wanted to pull himself out of the line of fire. “The reaction of the WDR exemplarily shows that things are going badly with the widely vaunted culture of debate in this country,” she wrote.
Criticism also of the “Bild” newspaper
Of the image accused El-Hassan of wanting to dismantle them. “Of course they can too imageResearching the newspaper about the past of a public person and asking questions, “she wrote.” But there is a line between critical journalistic work and a targeted campaign to dismantle a person. “The campaign against them had been prepared for a long time in right-wing forums. The aim there is to push as many people of Muslim faith as possible out of the public eye.
Accusations of anti-Semitism are used specifically because they are particularly effective in making someone impossible in the long term. The right-wing extremists are of course not interested in protecting Jewish life, rather the accusation of anti-Semitism is only a means to an end. Because: “In the land of the perpetrators – understandably – nobody wants to put themselves in a situation that could suggest that they are not vehemently involved in combating the societal problem of anti-Semitism.”
“The accusation that the WDR selected the presenters from a image-Campaign make dependent is nonsensical “, it finally said from Cologne. Regardless of the media coverage and public pressure in the case, the WDR” advised carefully and extensively, because those responsible do not frivolously hinder the young journalist’s career. but wanted to give her a chance “.