A Palestinian journalist returned to work at the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) after a German court overturned DW’s decision to dismiss him in February 2022 on allegations of anti-Semitism.

Zahi Alawi, the journalist, returned to work on March 20 after he was initially fired following an inquiry into social media posts he had written back in 2014 concluded that his posts were anti-Semitic under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism. Critics have said that this definition equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

Alawi’s posts in question had condemned the aggression carried out by the Israeli Occupation on Gaza in 2014, which left over 2,000 Palestinians killed.

"What the terrorist state of Israel is doing to the Palestinians is a repeated Holocaust," Alawi had written on his Facebook page in 2014.

After a two-month investigation, a total of seven Arab journalists were fired from DW in February 2022. Four of whom were Palestinian.

In 2021, DW had banned journalists from describing Israeli Occupation as an “apartheid state” and also advised them not to use the term colonialism.

Alawi posted an image taken outside of DW’s office along with the caption: “I'm back! After more than a year.”

“The labor court rejected the dismissal decision, which came under the pretext of anti-Semitism!” he wrote, adding, “A strange feeling, but a victory.”

He also thanked those who have stood by him over the past months.