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Nemi El-Hassan
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Jens Jeske / imago images
According to various media reports, the Broadcasting Council of West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR) discussed the anti-Semitism allegation against journalist Nemi El-Hassan for the second time on Friday.
The 28-year-old was originally supposed to moderate the science program "Quarks", but after the allegations became known and examined, the broadcaster decided against it for the time being.
"It's a difficult, difficult trade-off," repeated Intendant Tom Buhrow on Friday.
In the first discussion at the end of September, numerous members of the Broadcasting Council spoke up and, for the most part, spoke out against El-Hassan being employed by WDR in any form whatsoever.
This time, the opinions expressed apparently diverged more widely.
There was still agreement that anti-Semitism should not have a place in WDR either in front of or behind the camera.
However, the question of whether the expressions of opinion of the Palestinian journalist can really be classified as anti-Semitic was assessed differently.
Jürgen Bremer from the German Initiative for the Middle East stated that he had interviewed the former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, and the historian and anti-Semitism researcher Moshe Zimmermann on the subject. "As a result, you come to the conclusion: You really have to pay attention to the context in which these posts were made by Ms. El-Hassan," said Bremer. The posts that were held up to her were also shared by Jewish Israelis. Both had come to the conclusion that it was wrong to no longer employ El-Hassan at "Quarks".
Isabella Farkas, who sits on the broadcasting council for the regional associations of the Jewish communities, expressed a completely different opinion. She pointed out that El-Hassan had, among other things, liked a post about the breakout of convicted terrorists from an Israeli prison. "I was in Israel at the time, the country was in a state of shock," she reported. With a view to El-Hassan, people with such an attitude should not have a place in any format of public broadcasting, let alone become the face of WDR. "You could have believed her change if it weren't for the tweets from this year," the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger quotes Farkas.
The Chairman of the Broadcasting Council, Andreas Meyer-Lauber, recalled that the Broadcasting Council had no powers in personnel matters.
"We have nothing to decide here," he clarified.
He assumes, however, that Artistic Director Buhrow will continue to inform the supervisory body.
Nemi El-Hassan is criticized, among other things, for taking part in an Al-Kuds demonstration in Berlin years ago.
In the past, anti-Semitic slogans were repeatedly shouted at these rallies and symbols of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah movement were shown.
In the SPIEGEL interview, El-Hassan later described it as a mistake "to go to this demo without giving me sufficient information beforehand."
tfb / dpa