As the presenter of the “KiKa Treehouse”, he is supposed to get hundreds of thousands of young children in the right mood for the night, teach them knowledge and values – but in his free time, Matondo Castlo (28) is currently taking part in an anti-Israel youth festival in Farkha (West Bank).
Particularly explosive: Castlo demonstrated against settlements in the West Bank as part of the festival on Tuesday – “out of solidarity”, as he said on Instagram. At his side: radical people throwing stones.
This is evidenced, among other things, by a photo of self-proclaimed communist Nicole Schöndorfer. She too travelled to the West Bank for the Farkha Festival and was there with Castlo, among others. One of her Instagram posts from the demo shows at least one of the men in front of her holding a stone behind his back. Other participants are masked.
According to the organisers, the festival also includes “volunteer work, political discussions, workshops on the Palestinian liberation struggle” and a “political tour” in the days before. The content: clearly anti-Israel.
This is shown in a report by festival participant Kerem Schamberger, which he published on the blog “kommunisten.de”. Schamberger is considered a sympathiser of the anti-Semitic BDS movement. On a visit to Nazareth, he reports on “kommunisten.de” that his group was “greeted by militant young people”: “When they introduce themselves, without exception they all say ‘I’m from Palestine’, even though Nazareth is in Israel, which they only refer to as the 48 area, i.e. the land that was occupied in 1948”.
A passage in which Israel’s right to exist is rejected completely blatantly – without Schamberger catching or classifying the statements. In addition, Schamberger refers to the wall between Israel and the West Bank in his text as an “apartheid wall”.
The apartheid accusation is common among enemies of Israel. Originally, it was used to describe the former system in South Africa: the state-organised discrimination and devaluation of people on the basis of their skin colour. Israel an apartheid state? A lie.
The fact is: Arab and Muslim Israelis are represented in all parts of society, including in the current government in Jerusalem, in the military, in the police, in the media, in professional sport and culture. In February, Chaled Kabub became the first Muslim to be a permanent member of the Israeli Supreme Court – unthinkable in an apartheid state.
Castlo is apparently not bothered by the content of the festival: Schamberger shared a selfie with him and other festival participants on his Twitter account. Castlo is smiling happily for the camera.
The Farkha Festival is organised by the Marxist “Palestinian People’s Party”, which has been inciting against Israel and glorifying terrorists for decades.
KiKa told the newspaper BILD that it would “carefully” examine the facts of the case. The accusations were taken seriously. The station knows Castlo as a “very committed person who is always oriented towards the well-being of children and who clearly positions himself against hate and violence in his work as a coach, musician and educator”.
The broadcaster continued: “KiKA is a service for all children that conveys democratic values, offers orientation and stands up for children’s and human rights.”
The KiKa presenter also conducts workshops for young people.