After being attacked by fellow students
Beaten Jewish student robbed in hospital
February 7, 2024, 8:02 a.m
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After the attack on a Jewish student in Berlin, a dispute has broken out over how to deal with the attacker if the allegations are confirmed. There will probably be no de-registration, but a house ban seems possible. Meanwhile, according to his brother, the victim was robbed in the hospital.
The 30-year-old Jewish student Lahav Shapira, who was allegedly beaten and kicked by a pro-Palestinian fellow student in Berlin-Mitte over the weekend, is said to have been robbed at the Charité hospital. His brother, comedian Shahak Shapira, wrote on Platform and smartphones while you sleep.”
Lahav Shapira came to the clinic with broken bones in his face. The police had reportedthat he and his fellow student initially got into an argument. The 23-year-old then struck several times and kicked Shapira, who was lying on the ground. The alleged perpetrator initially fled, but was then identified.
The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, demanded in a statement the attacker’s exmatriculation: “Anyone who beats a Jewish fellow student to the hospital because he is a Jew has no place at a German university. There is no alternative to exmatriculating the student in question. The FU Berlin is responsible for ensuring that there is no one in its ranks There is room for extremism and anti-Semitism.”
Schuster accused the FU Berlin of “appeasement tactics” and “excuses”. These must “finally come to an end. If the fight against anti-Semitism is taken seriously, anti-Semitic crimes must lead to exmatriculation.”
Criticism for “conflict” formulation
The reaction of Berlin’s Science Senator Ina Czyborra caused criticism. The SPD politician told the RBB in relation to a possible expulsion of the perpetrator: “It is a high fundamental right that would be affected by exmatriculation. I also fundamentally reject exmatriculation for political reasons.” Science thrives on exchange and internationality, “and of course there are sometimes conflicts on campus. And we have to contain them.” Referring to this formulation, Shahak Shapira replied to X: “WHAT? ‘Conflict’? He could have almost died of a cerebral hemorrhage.”
However, exmatriculation does not seem possible for formal reasons: “The so-called regulatory law of universities, which was the most far-reaching measure that also made exmatriculation possible, was abolished by changing the Berlin Higher Education Act in 2021. Exmatriculation is therefore not formally possible,” it says on the website the educational institution.
It would be possible that a house ban would be issued, which Czyborra also did advocated at the RBB. The University share with: “If it is confirmed that the perpetrator is a student at the Free University of Berlin, the university will immediately examine possible legal steps within the framework of house law and, if necessary, enforce a ban on the house.”