After Helen Fares published several anti-Israel posts on her private social media account, the presenter of the “MixTalk” program is no longer allowed to work for SWR. The freelancer had been released from her moderation duties, Südwestrundfunk (SWR) surprisingly announced in Stuttgart on Monday evening (April 8th).
Just a few hours after her surprising dismissal, the 29-year-old commented on her expulsion for the first time – and described her point of view. The SWR leadership is not doing well.
Helen Fares: SWR presenter boycotts Israeli products – broadcaster reacts
In her new Instagram video, the former SWR presenter firmly rejected the accusation of anti-Semitism in English and defended her call for boycotts of goods as a legitimate form of political influence. Helen Fares justified this by emphasizing that Israel would be criticized worldwide for the military offensive in Gaza. In this context, she mentioned international allegations such as genocide and human rights violations.
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“The German media is trying to silence all voices that speak out for Palestine – that’s why we have to raise our voices even more and louder,” Fares continued. She was only fired from SWR because the public broadcaster “couldn’t deal with the fact that people from the right wing wrote letters and demanded my dismissal.”
Helen Fares justifies her boycott of Israel
According to SWR, Fares has repeatedly expressed extreme political positions on her private social media account and has “called for a boycott of Israeli products.” Specifically, it is about a video in which the presenter calls for the ostracism of an Israeli company in a supermarket Support start-ups. She also repeatedly called for a boycott on Instagram.
Moderator Helen Fares had repeatedly expressed extreme political positions
The SWR further announced on Monday evening that it was important to the broadcaster that the post in question was not created in the context of employment for the SWR. The SWR pointed out that moderators of a debate format had an obligation to be neutral in order to protect the independence and credibility of the program. The SWR believes that this principle has been violated in this specific case. The SWR also emphasized that there are clear rules for dealing with statements on social media.