HATE HOAX: Israeli-German Singer Admits He Lied About Hotel Discriminating Against Him for Being Jewish

Israeli/German dual citizen pop singer Gil Ofarim admits he lied about "antiSemetic" persecution at the hands of a Leipzig hotel in 2021.

His hoax prompted protests and a condemnation by the President of Germany.

The hotel owner stood his ground and sued for defamation. pic.twitter.com/7FNZz7YF1S

— National Conservative (@NatCon2022) November 28, 2023

A German-Israeli singer admitted in court on Tuesday to having lied when he accused two hotel employees of antisemitism in a viral video posted online two years ago.

Gil Ofarim, 41, shared an emotional account on social media in October 2021 accusing staff at an upscale hotel in the eastern city of Leipzig of asking him to "put away" a Star of David pendant before checking in.

The post was shared thousands of times, raising alarm about resurgent anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany eight decades after the end of the Holocaust.

However, investigators in a probe found "no evidence" to back up the allegation that led to the suspension of two hotel employees, and they filed defamation charges against Ofarim last year.

In surprise testimony Tuesday, Ofarim admitted to the accusations, saying he had made up the story and asking the hotel staff for forgiveness.

The manager, a co-plaintiff in the case against Ofarim, said he accepted the apology, closing the case.

Under the terms of a plea bargain with prosecutors, Ofarim agreed to donate 10,000 euros ($11,000) to Leipzig's Jewish community and the House of the Wannsee Conference, a Holocaust education center, the court said in a statement.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country's main Jewish administrative organization, issued a statement condemning Ofarim's behavior and calling on him to "face the consequences of his lie in every way." The group said the harm he has done has gone far beyond the hotel and clerk he has admitted to slandering.

"Gil Ofarim has caused great harm to all those who are actually affected by antisemitism," the group said in a statement. "In addition to the public, he also lied to the Jewish community."

The group, which had initially defended Ofarim, said it was appropriate to side with those who say they have experienced antisemitism but that false accusations were egregious.

"We have an antisemitism problem in our society; many are unsettled, especially in the current heated social situation, and are experiencing hatred and rejection of Jews," the group said. "It is right to stand on the side of the person affected in the event of an accusation of antisemitism, to support them and not to initially question their experience of antisemitism. Conversely, such an accusation must never be made without justification. And unfortunately that's what happened here."

Last year, a German man was sentenced to seven months in prison for leaving a hateful comment about Ofarim in response to a news story about him. The comment, "In Buchenwald he would have liked to be seen with his Star of David," referred to the Nazi concentration camp and ran afoul of Germany's strict -- and at times divisive -- laws prohibiting antisemitic speech.