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Two Palestinian-German journalists have been fired from their jobs at German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, per week after the information organisation let go of 5 of its Arabic service workers.
The dismissal of DW’s Arab staff got here after an exterior inquiry stated Zahi Alawi and Yasser Abu Muailek revealed social media posts again in 2014 that had been anti-Semitic, primarily based on the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) controversial prolonged definition of anti-Semitism.
Critics have stated that the IHRA definition is an affront to freedom of speech and is used to muzzle any criticism of Israeli insurance policies and occupation towards the Palestinian folks, and equates anti-Zionism with anti-Jewish prejudice.
The social media posts in query referred to Fb posts by Alawi and Abu Muailek that had condemned the Israeli offensive on the blockaded Gaza Strip in 2014.
“What the terrorist state of Israel is doing to the Palestinians is a repeated Holocaust,” Alawi wrote on his Fb web page in July 2014.
Greater than 2,200 Palestinians had been killed, together with 551 youngsters and 299 ladies, within the Israeli offensive within the Gaza Strip that had drawn international condemnation.
UN report
The inquiry was led by German Justice Minister Sabine Leuthauser Schanberger and psychologist Ahmed Mansour, a Palestinian Israeli recognized for his anti-Islam views.
On February 7, the inquiry concluded its findings into the unique 5 journalists below investigation, who had been suspended from DW in early December. The probe discovered that though there was no proof of structural anti-Semitism inside DW, the 5 journalists had been responsible of anti-Semitism.
Basil al-Aridi, Murhaf Mahmoud, Maram Salem, Farah Maraqa, and Dawood Ibrahim had been suspended had been fired on February 7 – the identical day the two-month exterior inquiry was launched.
They stated they weren’t given an opportunity to defend their case or contest the inquiry’s findings. One of many journalists, Salem, who was fired for a Fb put up criticising freedom of speech in Europe, instructed Al Jazeera her dismissal is a “profession assassination”.
In response to a rights monitor, a assessment of the inquiry discovered that its evaluation pushed for a “one-sided pro-Israeli narrative”.
Alawi and Abu Muailek are each veteran journalists with DW’s Arabic Service, after becoming a member of the organisation 17 and 12 years in the past respectively. They had been amongst eight different Arab staff that DW’s director-general, Peter Limbourg, stated final week had been below additional investigation.
Within the information convention, Limbourg apologised and promised to vet future journalist candidates extra rigorously.
Supply: Al Jazeera
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