Post AclAbqAz3nyaP3xxWS by oatmeal@kolektiva.social
 (DIR) More posts by oatmeal@kolektiva.social
 (DIR) Post #Acl3cTVW82JMhvvSfw by oatmeal@kolektiva.social
       2023-12-12T13:15:39Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       #Israel-#Germany / [2023-10-26] ‘We are Germans, and we need to do this,’Kasem Raad, a 20-year-old apprentice at German media company Axel Springer, was fired after questioning the company's staunchly pro-Israel editorial stance both internally and in a YouTube video.Raad posted on an internal message board asking why Axel Springer supports Israel. He was reprimanded by managers and told "We are Germans, and we need to do this" regarding the company's Israel policy.After posting a video disputing parts of the Israeli military's narrative about a recent attack by Hamas, Raad was fired just weeks into his 3-year apprenticeship. The company cited no reason, but he says managers told him it was due to his questioning and video.His firing came amidst growing repression of critical voices on Israel in Germany. Other Arab and Palestinian journalists have been dismissed, and rights groups caution media companies against targeting such voices.    Axel Springer has a mission statement that supports Israel's right to exist. Raad feels they prioritized this over their other stated principles of freedom and democracy in his termination.https://theintercept.com/2023/10/26/axel-springer-fires-employee-israel/@israel  @palestine  #IsraelHamasWar #AxelSpringer
       
 (DIR) Post #Acl3ocrXAkLHCH1B2G by stevenroose@x0f.org
       2023-12-13T06:16:46Z
       
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       @oatmealI find it pretty alarming that a newspaper has "#Israel's right to exist" as part of their mission statement.. @israel @palestine
       
 (DIR) Post #AclAbqAz3nyaP3xxWS by oatmeal@kolektiva.social
       2023-12-13T07:32:51Z
       
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       @stevenroose What do you mean exactly?For me, it maintains, maybe not on purpose, the rhetoric of extermination, which maybe in German context, it's something they need to remind themselves constantly.Politically though I guess it comes from the rejection of the partition decision and Palestinians leadership, as well as Arabs, seeing Israel as an artificial creation, so it has no right to exist.But I don't know, maybe it's deeper than that. Chomsky commented that no country had such a right, and it's a demand put forward to make it an open question to fail Palestinian demands, since accepting it implies accepting their dispossession. ---- This concept “right to exist” was in fact invented, as far as I can tell, in the 1970s when there was general international agreement, including the Arab states and the PLO, that Israel should have the rights of every state in the international system. And therefore, in an effort to prevent negotiations and a diplomatic settlement, the U.S. and Israel insisted on raising the barrier to something that nobody’s going to accept. Certainly, the Palestinians can’t accept it. They’re not going to accept Israel’s existence but also the legitimacy of its existence and the legitimacy of their dispossession. Why should they accept that? Why should anyone accept it?https://chomsky.info/200506__/
       
 (DIR) Post #AclKcGjNKVJIIptZY0 by stevenroose@x0f.org
       2023-12-13T09:25:00Z
       
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       @oatmeal I meant that it's something super specific. Shouldn't the mission statement of a newspaper be something more like "provide the public with unbiased information" blabla instead of taking explicit positions in certain conflicts? Does it also have mission statements like "safeguarding corporate hegemony over German political institutions" or stuff like that?
       
 (DIR) Post #AclNNoOYBWNSEFx7jc by oatmeal@kolektiva.social
       2023-12-13T09:56:01Z
       
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       @stevenroose oh I see. That’s true but German complexes in this regards  are very difficult to understand if you’re not German I guess.