After a hearing on July 20, the Berlin Labor Court ruled on Monday, September 5, in favor of journalist Farah Maraqa, ordering Deutsche Welle to reinstate her and pay her legal fees.
Last February, Deutsche Welle fired seven employees based on a two-month external investigation that examined allegations of antisemitism inside Germany’s public broadcaster. The DW in Arabic employees who were dismissed had issued statements supporting ISIS, called the Holocaust a fabrication, and accused world Jews of controlling the media. Among the seven was Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Farah Maraqa, who published several columns in the online pan-Arab newspaper Rai al-Youm supporting the killing of Israeli civilians.
In July 2014, Maraqa wrote: “The sound of the resistance’s rockets falling in the heart of Tel Aviv was once again music to our ears.”
After the November 2014 attack on a Har Nof synagogue in which Arab terrorists murdered five worshippers and a police officer, she wrote: “We, as Palestinians of various citizenships and origins, must remember that true media efforts are being dedicated when two martyrs, like the ones who perpetrated the Jerusalem operation, are dedicating both of their souls to redeem that land, and when horror crawls into the settlers’ spirits. Then, the media has no other option but to speak about our cause, even if all the politicians have betrayed us.”
In December 2015, after the killing of Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese terrorist who murdered Danny Haran and his two young daughters, smashing 4-year-old Einat’s head against a rock, Maraqa wrote: “To state my position, I feel sorry for Kuntar, nobody can deny him of his Jihad against the Israelis and his 30 years of captivity.”
After the January 2016 Dizengoff Street terror attack in which three civilians were murdered, Maraqa wrote: “I certainly would not have any criticism towards Nashat Melhem and what he has done, as I feel I am too small to write a single letter against this hero.”
After the 2017 release from prison of Ahmad Daqamseh after his 1997 slaughter of seven Israeli eighth-grade girls, Maraqa wrote: “Jordanians are happy, and by all standards, they are entitled to be. The conversation here is not only about revenge and the killing of Israeli women, which is established in the Jordanians’ belief that they are an ‘enemy.’ Rather, it is also because there is someone among them who bore the consequence of his ‘deed,’ even if it was a murder and required him to pay 20 years of his life, he is indeed a man capable of paying the price for his deed in its entirety.”
And in December 2021, after moving to Germany, she wrote: “All too often, journalists whitewash rejection of the Jewish state’s right to exist and miscast glorification of terrorism as criticism of Israel. Deutsche Welle’s recognition of the bigotry and incitement as just that is noteworthy and commendable.”
As a journalist and citizen, one of my key convictions is: thoughts and speech must be free in an open society. Meet me to discuss tomorrow, at 4 pm, Naturfreundehaus Hermsdorf.
Let’s talk!https://t.co/rSuWBfdvTz pic.twitter.com/ard5JqlCMk— Farah Maraqa (@Farah_Maraqa) June 25, 2022
I piled on all the above citations to bring across the point that this woman adamantly supports the murder of Israeli civilians, including children, and sanctifies the barbaric murderers who do it. But, as I noted above, on Monday, Berlin’s Labor Court ruled that the German broadcaster was not justified in dismissing her.
What does an antisemite need to do to get fired in Berlin? Murder Israeli athletes? Too soon, I know.
It’s the second lawsuit DW has lost after terminating the seven Arab-language journalists. On July 7, the Bonn Labor Court reversed DW’s dismissal of a Palestinian journalist named Maram Salem. The remaining five cases are still pending.
The courts may have so far found against DW because the impartial investigators they commissioned may not have been impartial. The report was written by former Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, and Arab-Israeli psychologist Ahmad Mansour and his wife Beatrice, whose consultancy group is dedicated to preventing “Muslim extremism and antisemitism” in Germany, and also run a program protecting Muslim youths from jihadist influence.
Another reason is the fact that the DW report relies on the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which includes anti-Zionism. It’s not a universally accepted fact, and the labor courts may have found it insufficient to justify the dismissals.
A third reason was mentioned by attorney Ahmed Abed, who represents some of the dismissed employees: “DW did not inform the employees of their termination in due time,” he told the anti-Zionist website +972, adding: “Usually employers would give two weeks’ notice—my clients had no warning. After the press conference, they just sent them the termination documents without a reason written. Usually, your superior and HR would sit down and discuss the investigation findings—that didn’t happen. The legal bases for their terminations are just so vague.”
