The long reverberation of a short mobile phone video: The director of the Westin Hotel in Leipzig puts the direct costs incurred so far after Gil Ofarim’s accusation of anti-Semitism against a receptionist at more than 100,000 euros. For lawyers, crisis PR, and special support for staff. Andreas Hachmeister named this sum in an interview with MDR Sachsen. “We are currently in the process of determining the extent of the damage to our image that we have suffered,” he continued.
After the Instagram clip was distributed on October 4, 2021, a “hurricane” of indignation (according to Hachmeister) broke out over the hotel team. Within “three, four hours” there would have been hate calls and hate mail from all over the world; plus countless media inquiries. Normal hotel operations would have been affected for three or four weeks. “Everyone expects an immediate response in this very difficult situation where the facts were not at all clear. Then there was an internal time pressure that we could hardly do justice to.”
It has not yet been decided whether the Westin Hotel will continue to file a civil lawsuit against Gil Ofarim against the background of the financial expenses. Before that, the regional court in Leipzig has to decide whether the defamation charges brought against Ofarim by the local public prosecutor at the end of March will be admitted. The singer and his lawyers have until today to comment.
According to their own statements, hotel manager Hachmeister and his crew would have been “a heartbroken” after the public prosecutor’s office had stopped the investigation against the employee – and had thus gone public. It is not yet known when exactly the Leipzig court will decide whether to open proceedings in matters of false suspicion and defamation.
For the time being, all that remains is the shrewd realization that dissemination via social media is very rarely a tried and tested way of resolving conflicts of all kinds.