A nasty evening of football at the international match Germany against Israel on 26.3.2022 on ZDF: When the antisemitic image of Israel held by commentator Oliver Schmidt appears to weigh so heavily on him inside that it bursts out in however absurd a context, then: welcome to ZDF.
The Israeli sports director deliberately wants to avoid political statements by his team on social media – as is, by the way, frequently customary. Quite right, because sport should unite and not divide. The Sportstudio commentator, however, wants to know better and eagerly adds that in Israel it is generally the case that Arab-Israeli athletes are only accepted as long as they keep quiet, otherwise there would be “headwind from conservative and orthodox forces”.
That is called Israel-related antisemitism – a well-known phenomenon that is readily played down.
We ask: ZDF, to what extent do the above-mentioned statements by your commentator accord with the principles of your broadcaster?
