Antisemitism flourishes at German Universities as authorities remain silent

The FU president said: ‘Both sides need to refrain from provocations.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Reports of antisemitic incidents at German universities are troubling, especially considering the equivocation and silence among authorities.

One of the most shocking incidents involved Lahav Shapira who was the grandson of coach Amitzur Shapira who was assassinated by Palestinian terrorists along with 10 other Israelis at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Lahav, a student at the Free University of Berlin, was putting up posters of hostages held in Gaza to raise awareness.

That evening at a bar, a German-Arab student said he recognized him and beat Lahav severely.

He sustained injuries to his nose and the bone beneath his eye, which required surgery.

In response, Berlin’s Secretary of Education, Ina Czyborra, of the Social Democratic party initially refused to expel the German-Arab student for severely beating Shapira.

She said, “I fundamentally reject expulsion for political reasons.”

FU’s president, Gunter Ziegler agreed to suspend the assailant for 3 months, but on other occasions made a moral equivalency between peaceful demonstrations on behalf of hostages and pro-Palestinian rallies that have often turned violent.

The FU president said, “Both sides need to refrain from provocations.”

Anti-Israel sentiment  has become more intense on German campuses, with many carrying signs with slogans like “Free Palestine from German guilt.”

When Israeli Supreme Court judge Daphne Barak-Erez spoke at Humboldt University in Berlin, 20 pro-Hamas protesters harassed her on her way out of the lecture hall and yelled, “End the genocide.”

Michael Blume who is tasked with fighting antisemtism in Baden-Württemberg (BW) gave a lecture at Tübingen University entitled “Antisemitism in our society”  in which he attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegedly funding Hamas, his judicial reform proposals and relocating soldiers to Judea and Samaria before the war.

One of Blume’s more outlandish theories is that Israel’s position on renewable energies is a major obstacle in the fight against antisemitism.

Blume said, “The European and U.S. right-wing, just like the Israeli government, have blocked the expansion of renewable energies and thereby allowed and even promoted the fossil financing of regimes.”

Tübingen University also invited Professor Daniel Boyarin from UC Berkeley who was supposed to discuss similarities and differences between Judaism and Islam, but instead went on a rant advocating “Judaism without a Jewish State,” blasted Israel’s  “authoritarian, racist, military conduct” and said the country should be abolished.