Israel’s ambassador rebukes German TV outlet for airing anti-Israel slogan

The 'Bild' paper wrote that broadcast of the slogan was “tasteless.”

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Anti-Israel demonstrators at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001; Muslim anti-Zionism is picking up from where Christian antisemitism left off. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Anti-Israel demonstrators at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001; Muslim anti-Zionism is picking up from where Christian antisemitism left off.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Jeremy Issacharoff, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, on Sunday criticized a program on the ZDF television outlet for broadcasting an anti-Israel slogan calling for an end to the occupation of disputed Palestinian territories during a show about the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It is disgrace that some people consider this useful to exploit this event for political goals against Israel, Issacharoff told the Bild paper, adding Germany just celebrated the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the communist East German state.
“On November 9, we celebrated the fall of the Wall, but also dignifiedly recalled the pogrom night 81 years ago, which is also symbolic of the horrors of at the time approaching Holocaust,” said Issacharoff.
After an appearance by the singer Anna Loos on the German public-service television station ZDF, the show projected in large Hebrew letters the slogan on the stage “End the Occupation.” Bild said the slogan was aired during one of the most-viewed periods on German television.
Uwe Becker, the newly elected head of the German-Israel association, told The Jerusalem Post that “Against the background of the historical significance of November 9, 1938 as the beginning of the systematic mass murder of six million European Jews, dealing with the joy of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 must be done in a sensitive manner.” He added that “ZDF has done exactly the opposite with the display of the call to end the Israeli occupation in its own wall show and just on the anniversary of the November pogroms.”
Becker noted that ZDF provided “a stage for anti-Israel antisemitism. I expect that the ZDF explains how it came to this totally unacceptable crossing of a line and apologizes.”
Becker, who is also the state commissioner responsible for combating antisemitism in the German state of Hesse, this “misconduct must not repeat itself.”
Bild wrote that broadcast of the slogan was “tasteless.”
Moritz van Dülmen, the head of the Berliner Culture Project, who advises the show, told the paper that “It was a mistake, for which I carry the responsibility.” He said the slogan was not noticed prior to its display. Van Dülmen said he plans to apologize to the ambassador.
German journalist Stefan Laurin first reported on the slogans on the news website Ruhrbarone. He mocked the alleged intense preoccupation with slamming Israel in the federal republic. “A German greeting to Israel,” he wrote. “The Germans do not want to let go of the right to criticize Israel at the celebration of the end of the GDR [German Democratic Republic] dictatorship.”