SWR, a German public media network, has fired its presenter Helen Fares for posting anti-Israeli occupation posts on social media accusing her of anti-Semitism for standing up against genocide. 

Fares, the 29-year-old of Syrian origins, posted a video on Instagram titled: "German media is being silenced - but we will not be silenced," in which she rejected accusations of anti-Semitism and revealed that she is being threatened with deportation from Germany. 

Apparently, boycotting genocide money is 'anti-Semitic'

"I would like to tell you about something that happened to me and I would like to hear your opinion on what we as a community should do next," Fares started her video saying.

"Yesterday, an article was released in Germany claiming that I'm anti-semitic because I'm boycotting buying products from companies that support Israel's economy," she stressed.  

"I want to make one thing really clear. We are not anti-semitic because we are boycotting products from a company that supports a country that is currently being investigated for genocide in front of the ICJ because it slaughtered tens and thousands of people," Fares emphasized. 

Being anti-genocide comes with unemployment, deportation 

"However, as a result of this article, there have been hundreds of very threatening messages and calls for me to lose my job and for me to be deported. And I actually did lose my job. Not because of what I said by the way but because my formal employer, SWR, which is a German public media network that's supposed to protect freedom of speech by the way, couldn't handle the fact that some right-wing people sent them letters asking for me to be let go," Fares revealed.

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"Anyway, millions of people around the world have engaged in boycott culture, including thousands upon thousands of Jewish people, and those people have asked us specifically to do whatever we can to create pressure on the Israeli government to halt its actions in Palestine because their actions are fueling anti-Sematism due to people conflating the Israeli government with being representatives of all Jewish people," she emphasized. 

"And to ignore those Jewish people asking for peace, asking for our solidarity and protection that's anti-Semitic, don't you think? "

"The situation is quite volatile and German right-wing trolls are trolling to a degree that I wonder what you as this strong community that stands against the Israeli government and their actions in Palestine think we should do."

SWR claim

The SWR justified its actions by saying that Fares had posted anti-Israeli occupation content on her private account calling for a boycott of goods, which is a goal pursued by the BDS movement.

It added "that moderators of a debate format have a duty of neutrality to protect the independence and credibility of the program," emphasizing that Fares lacked this neutrality in her social media activities.

Germany a 'police state' for Palestine activism

According to Hebh Jamal from ScheerPost on April 8, the German government is taking extreme steps to crack down on pro-Palestine sentiment, including detaining activists in their homes in the middle of the night.

Jamal detailed how pro-Palestinian activists Said and Yasemin had German police burst into their homes in the middle of the night in recent weeks, searching their belongings and seizing their electronic devices. 

In a series of social media posts, Said stated that this was the third time the police had visited him, citing he had done nothing illegal to be targeted. "I am not okay," he wrote. “Why is the German government trying everything possible to criminalize me? I have done nothing wrong. I make the German government and the media responsible for everything that might happen to me!” 

Yasemin informed Scheerpost that she was targeted because of a social media video she posted about the action against Israeli diplomat and ambassador to Germany Ron Proser.

Want the German citizenship? Support genocide

Meanwhile, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced late last month that Germany will amend its citizenship test to include questions regarding the Holocaust and "Israel".

Faeser told Der Spiegel that it was Germany's "crime against humanity- the Holocaust" which gives the country a "special responsibility to protect Jews and the state of Israel."

She further added that anyone wishing to become a German citizen must understand "what it means and accept Germany's responsibility," as that responsibility is part of the German identity.