The CEO of a German media giant had a very pointed message for employees who complained that the company raised the Israeli flag outside their offices to show solidarity with the Jewish people and Israel as anti-Semitic demonstrations unfolded last month, saying that they should find new jobs.
The remarks by Axel Springer SE CEO Mathias Döpfner were made during a meeting last Thursday for the company’s 16,000 employees where he addressed complaints from some employees that the company had raised an Israeli flag outside company headquarters in Berlin.
“I think, and I’m being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after anti-Semitic demonstrations, should look for a new job,” Döpfner said. “After these weeks of terrible antisemitic demonstrations, we at our building headquarters raised next to the European flag, and the German flag, [and] the Berlin flag, said let’s raise for 1 week the Israeli flag as a gesture of solidarity. We do not accept this kind of aggressive anti-Semitic movements.”
The Jerusalem Post reported:
Berlin-based Axel Springer is the largest digital publisher in Europe, which owns Bild, Die Welt, Business Insider, Politico Europe and many other news brands, as well as Israel’s largest classified ads website, Yad2. …
Axel Springer put the Israeli flag up in front of its headquarters in May, following antisemitic displays at pro-Palestinian demonstrations across Germany, including marches to synagogues, shouting slogans against Jews, attacks on Jewish institutions and the burning of Israeli flags.
Döpfner reportedly said that some people did not want to work for the company if the company flew the Israeli flag and that those people did “not fit the company and its values.”
Axel Springer was founded post-WWII in 1946 in the western German city of Hamburg. The company’s top-5 “Essentials” includes standing up for the Jewish people and Israel’s right to exist.
Anti-Semitic demonstrations and attacks on Jews skyrocketed last month after Israel repeatedly defended itself from Palestinian terrorist attacks from Gaza. Palestinian terrorists fired thousands of rockets at Israel and Israel responded by devastating terrorist infrastructure, including over 60 miles of underground tunnels, inside Gaza. Israel also said it killed more than two hundred terrorists. Out of the estimated 4,350 rockets fired at Israel, approximately 650 fell inside Gaza and Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted roughly 90% of the remaining rockets.
“The public doesn’t know everything yet, nor does Hamas. Our accomplishments will be revealed in time,” said former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May. “We caused maximum damage to Hamas with minimal casualties on the Israeli side, and of course we grieve all loss of human life.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
The Bible has a great deal to say about supporting the Jewish State. Whether as an individual, a business, an organization, or a nation, we are all called by the True and Living God to bless Israel.
Genesis 12:3 KJV – “And I [God] will bless them that bless thee [Israel], and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Since the nation of the Jewish people was miraculously reborn, just as God prophetically promised (Ezekiel 36-17, Isaiah 66:7-9, Matt. 24:32-34), people have attempted to delegitimized and demonize them.
We live in times when people will increasingly come against God’s chosen people and their eternally promised capital Jerusalem (Zechariah 12). Our world is setting the stage for the Tribulation, which is referred to in Jeremiah 30:7 as the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” In this time, Israel and the Jewish people will face unprecedented antisemitism, even far above that of the holocaust!
The anti-Israel bias and propaganda we are witnessing today is a harbinger of what is to come. It is increasingly vital that Christians work as a restraining force to this evil until we are “caught up” or Raptured by our Heavenly Father. We do this by standing with Israel and shining a light of Biblical truth in the midst of false information.
Terry James in his article, “Acceleration toward Tribulation,” wrote:
Just in the past several weeks, a growing, gestating process of hatred of the Jewish race has grown into near 1939 levels in some parts of the world—including parts of the United States of America.
It is a sure sign that the Tribulation period, when God will begin pouring wrath on this rebellious world, must be near indeed. Jesus, Himself, prophesied that this hatred against His people will, in that future era, be far worse than at any time of human history.
With regard to this era—this pre-Rapture era—can we see this hatred for the Jews beginning to come to pass? Has the level of anti-Semitism hatred prophesied for the end of days begun to take place?
I believe so… The profound uptick in anti-Semitism, in my view, indicates that there is a speeding up in the rage toward the Tribulation era. That should inspire us as believers in Jesus Christ to expect at any moment His shout, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).
