Journalist Yossi Bartal on the Al-Mashhadani case In November 2025, Hudhaifa Al-Mashhadani, the "Professor Doctor" director of a German-Arabic school in Neukölln, claimed he had been shoved toward a moving U-Bahn train by a keffiyeh-wearing attacker. There was just one problem: CCTV footage showed he simply walked onto the train. In this episode, HEIST founding editor Peter Matthews sits down with Berlin-based journalist Yossi Bartal to discuss the rise and fall of a seemingly pathological liar who became the German media and political establishments’ darling. But this isn't just a story about a single grifter. It’s an indictment of German media’s failures, a patriarchal style of inter-Neukölln governance, and a multi-million-euro antisemitism industry. Check out Bartal’s feature for HEIST, “How to Stage a Political Assassination: The Neukölln Attack That Never Happened.” This episode is part of the three-episode drop that properly kicks off the HEIST podcast. Check out our podcast feed for the other two conversations: with Hebh Jamal about life as a Palestinian in Berlin and Ben Miller about the AfD’s abuse of queer politics. Links & Resources: Read Yossi’s full article on HEIST, “How to Stage a Political Assassination: The Neukölln Attack That Never Happened.” Follow Yossi on Bluesky and Instagram Read Yossi Bartal in The Diasporist, TAZ, Freitag, and Neues Deutschland. Keep up with HEIST on Instagram: @heistberlin_. Support worker-owned Berlin journalism and subscribe to HEIST.