After the allegations against the “Westin Hotel” in Lepizig, people gathered at short notice in front of the hotel to demonstrate against anti-Semitism. According to the public prosecutor’s office, Ofarim’s allegations do not apply at all.
Photo: picture alliance/dpa, Dirk Knofe. All rights reserved.
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About half a year after the singer Gil Ofarim published an Instagram video in which he accused the Leipzig hotel “The Westin” of anti-Semitism, which according to the public prosecutor’s office has now proved to be unfounded, the hotel manager Andreas Hachmeister is making the media in the NDR program “Zapp” serious allegations.
They would not have questioned the musician’s statements sufficiently, but instead reported blindly, and thus also contributed to an enormous shitstorm against the hotel. Among other things, the manager is confronted in the program with an article from the Süddeutsche Zeitung that bears the headline “Grand Hotel Abgrund”: “It hits you in the core,” says Hachmeister.
According to the rock musician’s Instagram video, which has been viewed more than four million times to date, the hotel found itself at the center of a huge media frenzy overnight for which it was unprepared. Press inquiries from all over the world have reached the Leipzig hotel. “It wasn’t a shit storm for us. It was a hurricane,” says the manager, who is relieved today that the public prosecutor’s office has stopped investigating his employee, whom Ofarim had accused of anti-Semitism. Instead, prosecutors have filed charges of defamation and false accusation against Ofarim.
Ofarim continues to stand behind his allegations
Ofarim’s lawyer, Markus Henning, also has his say in the documentation. He and his client remain behind the allegations. The singer’s allegations weren’t about blaming anyone, but “to draw attention to something that happened to him that he thinks is unacceptable.” The regional court in Leipzig must now decide whether the Leipzig public prosecutor’s office will allow the charges against Ofarim.
You can find the almost fifteen-minute contribution to the Ofarim case from the NDR program “Zapp”. here. Ofarim was recently seen as a disciple of Jesus in the RTL program “The Passion”, which had to take a lot of malice and ridicule.
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