Beaten up by fellow students
Jewish student sues Berlin University
26.06.2024, 03:54
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The Free University of Berlin will have to go to court again to look into the beating of a Jewish student. A pro-Palestinian fellow student beat the 31-year-old so badly that he had to be hospitalized. Lahav Shapira received no protection from the university, the lawsuit states.
Jewish student Lahav Shapira is suing the Free University of Berlin after a fellow student attacked him. The Berlin Administrative Court has received a corresponding case, a court spokesperson said. According to the case, Shapira accuses the university of having allowed “anti-Semitic language to become concrete acts”. The now 31-year-old was beaten up in February in an attack that was presumably motivated by anti-Semitism and was taken to hospital with broken bones in his face. A pro-Palestinian German fellow student, who was 23 at the time, is said to have attacked him in the nightlife district in Berlin-Mitte. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is investigating on suspicion of dangerous bodily harm. It classifies the act as anti-Semitic and sees a connection with the Middle East conflict. The investigation is still ongoing, a spokesperson said.
Shapira, meanwhile, wants to hold the Free University (FU) responsible. He is referring to paragraph 5b of the Berlin University Act. According to this, universities are obliged to prevent discrimination – including because of an “anti-Semitic attribution”. “It’s about the fact that the university tolerated the anti-Semitic mood that also led to the attack for far too long. According to the University Act, the university has a duty to ensure a discrimination-free environment. And it has not done that,” said Shapira, according to ZDF’s “Frontal”.
According to the report, the university “has not taken adequate measures to prevent or structurally eliminate anti-Semitic discrimination against the plaintiff or other Jewish students.” The 16-page complaint states. It is not yet clear when the administrative court will hear the case. According to the court spokesman, the complaint has only just been received.
Tightening of the higher education law planned
There was no initial statement from the FU. According to ZDF’s “Frontal”, the university’s press office told the broadcaster: “The lawsuit you mentioned has not yet been received by the Free University of Berlin. The Free University does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
As a consequence of the attack, the Berlin Senate intends to tighten the university law. The opposition criticizes the planned tightening. The protection of victims is not the focus, said the Left Party in the Science Committee of the House of Representatives a week ago.
The aim of victim protection must be to ensure that a victim of violence does not have to sit opposite the perpetrator in a lecture, for example. This is not the case with the change planned by the SPD and CDU, as expulsion after a conviction can drag on for years.