Residents and security personnel gather in a bomb shelter inside a house that was hit earlier, as air-raid siren goes off for incoming rockets from Gaza, in Sderot, Israel March 25, 2019. (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
NEW YORK – A controversial left-wing German journalist is under fire for writing a commentary on Tuesday declaring that Israelis on the border of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip can “come to terms” with jihadi rocket attacks on their communities.
In response to the left-wing journalist’s editorial, Israel’s embassy tweeted on Wednesday:
“We will never come to terms with such journalistic standards @susanneknaul @tazgezwitscher @PresseratDE.”
The embassy included the Twitter handles for the journalist Knaul, the left-wing paper taz, where she wrote the commentary and the German Press Council.
The embassy embedded a 59 second video in the tweet showing footage of Israelis running into bomb shelters and a resident from Sderot speaking about rushing to get babies into shelters. The clip shows the quote from Knaul’s commentary about coming to terms with jihadi rocket fire, noting that Israelis have 15 seconds to make it to the bomb shelters. The embassy’s tweet was re-tweeted 431 time and liked 959 times as of Sunday.
Botschaft Israel@IsraelinGermanyMit solchen journalistischen Standards werden wir uns niemals arrangieren. @susanneknaul @tazgezwitscher @PresseratDE
Translation: We will never come to terms with such journalistic standards
Knaul, who is the Israel-based correspondent for taz, wrote: “It is possible to come to terms with the missiles on Israeli villages close to the border. Public buildings are safely constructed. The population is protected, receive tax breaks and is used to sirens that have been roaring regularly for years.”
Knaul has faced criticism for her anti-Israel reporting for over a decade.
In 2017, Sigmount Königsberg, the commissioner on antisemitism for Germany’s largest Jewish community in Berlin, told The Jerusalem Post “Susanne Knaul legitimizes terrorism.”
Knaul previously sparked outrage over her commentary declaring “Jerusalem is not Berlin” when evaluating the morality of vehicular terrorist attacks that took place in both cities. It is a “fact that there are reasons for the desperation which motivate Palestinians to suicide attacks,” she wrote. Knaul cited the “occupation” and “injustice” as ostensibly legitimate reasons to murder Israeli soldiers.
In January 2017, a Palestinian drove his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers, murdering four of them in attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was “part of the same pattern inspired by the Islamic State.” In 2016, an Islamic State supporter rammed his truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, including Israeli Dalia Elyakim.
Michaela Engelmeier, a Social Democratic deputy in the Bundestag, told the Post in 2017 that Knaul, “with her tendentious statements, pours more oil into the fire of antisemitism and legitimizes violence against Israelis.”
Post press queries to Knaul and the editor-in-chief of taz, Georg Löwisch, were not immediately returned.
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