Hotel employee on Ofarim: Staging himself like a victim

At the RTL jungle camp, musician Gil Ofarim expressed his views on the anti-Semitism accusations against a hotel employee - now the person concerned is speaking out publicly for the first time. In an interview with "Die Zeit", he also spoke about Ofarim's appearance on the show "Ich bin ein Star, holt mich hier raus!", which the musician won on Sunday: "He presents himself as a victim, even though that's what I am, and that's difficult for me," said the employee, whose full name was not mentioned in the interview.

The musician made headlines in 2021 when he portrayed himself on Instagram as the victim of anti-Semitic comments made by a hotel employee. These accusations later turned out to be false - Ofarim retracted his account in a defamation lawsuit against him. The proceedings were discontinued. According to "Die Zeit", the hotel employee had never commented on this in an interview - until now.

Hotel employee speaks about death threat

Ofarim suggested in an edition of the RTL jungle camp that there may have been something wrong with the camera footage from the hotel, which was one of the reasons for the hotel employee's exoneration in court. He told "Die Zeit": "It leaves me stunned. Neither the court nor the video expert questioned the credibility of the recordings - nor the statements of the witnesses."

After the allegations, he went to the police and filed a complaint against Ofarim for defamation. "My social media accounts were overflowing, I was bombarded to an extent you can't imagine. I received a death threat via my work email address," the hotel employee reported. "My boss at the time called that evening to offer to take me to a safe place for a few days. 15 minutes later, a limousine picked me up. It was like something out of a movie."

Ofarim is the son of 60s star Abi Ofarim, who died in 2018.