"If something happens, you know my story." This was the last message I received from Yasemin Acar, a German human rights activist and friend, before the Madleen flotilla that she was travelling on to break the siege in Gaza was illegally raided.
On board were also Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, French MEP Rima Hassan, and many other human rights activists. All were brutally abducted. "They won't get me out, that much is clear. If something happens, Tarek, you know my story."
Yasemin has since been released from Israeli captivity, but whilst she was held, a smear campaign was already underway. Germany's biggest newspaper BILD labelled her an antisemite.
She's back now. And while she can speak again, so will we, with facts, and with humanity, just as we must for Gaza.
Yasemin has spent her life standing up for Gaza’s besieged people. Since the start of Israel’s genocide, she’s become one of the most visible faces in Germany, at every protest, always at the front, shouting, linking arms, confronting police trying to shut them down. She’s done this side by side with her Jewish allies.
You won’t find a single antisemitic statement from her, not because she’s silent, but because she’s the opposite. Yasemin is loud, relentless, and principled. Her fight is against racism and ethnosupremacy. She’s inconvenient. She’s demanding. She’s devoted.
Israel’s motive for abducting her is no mystery: she challenged the illegal blockade of Gaza and demanded Germany take a stand. Yet major German media, t-online.de, RND, ntv, Euronews, Jüdische Allgemeine, parroted Israeli propaganda, mocking the Madleen’s crew by repeating the term “selfie yacht,” coined by Israel’s foreign minister just hours before the raid.
Let’s talk about Yasemin the person. I’m not in her inner circle, but what I’ve seen speaks volumes. I first noticed her at Berlin Central Station in 2022, helping Ukrainian refugees, unpaid, self-organised, tireless. She waited on platforms, made calls, escorted families, entertained children, cooked meals, and opened her home. She’s been doing this for half her life.
“It’s crazy how fair-minded she was, even in elementary school,” a former classmate wrote to me.
When we finally met, she greeted me like an old friend. That’s Yasemin, open-hearted, disarmingly human. No hidden motives. What you see is what you get. The woman in those videos, urgent, restless, bracing for the worst but still believing in better, that’s exactly who she is. And the media would know it if they spoke to her instead of about her. “We’re proud of her, but scared like never before,” her sister told me, waiting in Berlin.
The Madleen was never about optics, it was about sacrifice
Only a few knew what Yasemin had been preparing for months. She understood the risks of the Madleen Freedom Flotilla. She knew what happened to the nine activists killed on the Mavi Marmara in 2010. What Israel’s regime and its decaying press call a “show,” a “selfie yacht,” or “staged,” was, in truth, what Germans might call a Himmelfahrtskommando, a suicide mission, a one-way trip where danger is a given.
She was ready to reach Gaza, under bombs or siege. Ready to disappear at sea or end up in a cell. Ready to be sent back to Berlin. And to go out again.
The point is: she was ready to risk everything. Even to end. Because Gaza is vanishing from the conversation, and someone had to bring it back.
On the day of her abduction from the Madleen, Tagesspiegel wrote: “As the district attorney’s office announced on Wednesday, the 38-year-old woman is charged with using symbols of terrorist organisations in five cases and other offences. According to information obtained by the Tagesspiegel, the defendant is Yasemin Acar.”
She was being labelled.
Yes, Yasemin has faced, and still faces, legal proceedings for her activism. But she has never been convicted. Even parts of Germany’s judiciary have begun to reject the logic behind some of these charges.
What are they? Chanting “From the River to the Sea” is alleged to be “using symbols of a terrorist organisation.” Multiple courts have ruled otherwise — that the slogan predates Hamas and is protected speech.
She was even arrested once for chanting in Arabic, at a time when Berlin police had effectively banned the language from protests.
Yes, she's alleged to have called police “criminals” and shared official documents without approval. These are the allegations.
So is this really the scandal? If that’s your scoop, what does that say about the state of your journalism?
Yasemin Acar is an activist. A human rights activist. Activists aren’t meant to play nice. They’re not here to make you comfortable. They’re here to provoke, to confront, to push back, to challenge politicians, police, and journalists. Even me. Real journalism doesn’t police civil society’s tone. It questions the state’s power.
Let’s be clear: Yasemin Acar wouldn’t be a household name in Germany if Israel weren’t committing genocide in Gaza. That’s the story. She’s a person, complex, like anyone. Dig long enough and you’ll find something to twist against her. That’s not journalism.
Some outlets have scrutinised Yasemin more harshly than the army that abducted her, the same army whose statements they repeat without question.
Yasemin can speak for herself. Her arguments are stronger than those denying genocide. She said Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal. She said Germany is complicit. She was right. Israel stormed the Madleen in international waters. Her government stayed silent.
Between her abduction and this writing, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed. Just hours ago, Israeli forces opened fire on starving civilians at two supposed food distribution points. That is the conversation. That is where pressure belongs. That’s what Yasemin was trying to change. If you don’t like her methods, you should have done better. But the genocide continues, and no one has.
Tarek Baé is a journalist and author of Arab descent based in Berlin, Germany. With a background in media studies, he is the founder of Itidal (itidal.de), a media platform dedicated to amplifying minority voices in Germany. Public broadcaster ZDF once described him as “one of the most influential political influencers in Germany”, a label that, while intended critically, speaks to his impact in the public discourse.
Follow him on Instagram and X: @tarek_bae
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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.