According to “Die Zeit”, an internal investigation report raises doubts as to whether Gil Ofarim was insulted anti-Semitically in a hotel in Leipzig.
After Gil Ofarim’s (39) anti-Semitism allegations against an employee of a hotel in Leipzig, a report is said to cast doubt on the musician’s statements. This is reported by the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, citing the results of an internal investigation. At the beginning of October, the singer said on Instagram that he had been asked by an employee of the hotel to pack his necklace with a Star of David. Then he can check in.
“Die Zeit” now says that none of the evening’s witnesses questioned by a law firm had heard an anti-Semitic insult. In its current edition, the newspaper refers to the 118-page final report from a law firm commissioned by the hotel operators. This investigated parallel to the Leipzig public prosecutor’s office, whose investigation is still ongoing.
What happened in the hotel lobby?
According to the weekly newspaper, the lawyers were able to speak to employees and guests and evaluate video material from the surveillance cameras. “None of the witnesses who appear in the firm’s report heard an anti-Semitic insult in the hotel lobby. Nobody should remember statements about a chain with a Star of David, just one of them thinks they may have seen the chain,” said it “The time”. However, the police have not yet completed their own interviews with witnesses. According to the firm’s report, the musician had come into conflict with an employee of the hotel because Ofarim believed that he had given preferential treatment to other customers. Ofarim did not comment on the findings, according to “Die Zeit”.
The newspaper also reports that an expert had prepared an expert opinion on behalf of the law firm. It comes to the conclusion that the images from the surveillance cameras presented by the hotel were almost certainly not tampered with. With a probability bordering on certainty, the musician did not wear his chain visibly on the video sequences presented – neither when arriving in front of the house, nor when entering the lobby, nor at the reception, nor when leaving the lobby. The authorities stressed that one had to wait for the end of the police investigation.
Employee can work again
It was previously known that the hotel employee against whom the allegations were directed was allowed to resume his work following the internal investigations of the law firm. He had been given temporary leave. It “came to the conclusion that there are no objectifiable indications that would justify taking criminal and / or labor law measures against the accused employee,” it said in a statement.
“Bild am Sonntag” reported in mid-October, citing soundless surveillance videos from the hotel, which the newspaper reports, that Ofarim’s chain with the Star of David is allegedly not to be seen. The “Leipziger Volkszeitung” also said that the surveillance video from the hotel lobby raised “further questions about the Gil Ofarim case”. The evaluation of the video recordings should not have been completed by then.
Gil Ofarim explained to “Bild am Sonntag”: “The sentence that came up came from behind. That means someone recognized me. It’s not about the chain. It’s actually about something much bigger. Since I often talk to the Star of David on TV, I was offended because of it. ” It’s not about “whether the chain was seen in the hotel or not. It’s about the fact that I was insulted anti-Semitically”.
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