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Ina Czyborra (SPD), Berlin Senator for Science, Health and Care, during an interview with the dpa.
© Hannes P Albert/dpa
The case of the student who is said to have beaten and kicked a Jewish fellow student until he was hospitalized continues to make waves.
A senator comes under pressure.
Berlin - The debate about how to deal with the suspected student in the Lahav Shapira case is becoming more heated: Berlin's science senator is facing calls for her resignation after statements made in the RBB.
Bavaria's anti-Semitism commissioner Ludwig Spaenle accused SPD politician Ina Czyborra on Wednesday of trivializing and "whitewashing": "The only option is to resign."
While several parties are calling for a change in the law to enable universities to de-register in such cases, Czyborra is sticking to the line of a ban on entering the premises.
“Before stricter measures are discussed, the existing resources must be exhausted, even if this ultimately has to be dealt with in court,” she said.
She called a house ban in the current case “urgently necessary”.
Prime Minister Kai Wegner (CDU) called for quick and harsh punishment.
The constitutional state will take tough action against anti-Semitic crimes.
“The universities, in this case the Free University and its management, are called upon to act and no longer tolerate or downplay anti-Semitic incidents,” wrote Wegner on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
Universities need tools to be able to act consistently and quickly.
“If this requires a change to the Higher Education Act, we will talk about it in the coalition.”
Czyborra's statements in criticism
The criticism of Czyborra was sparked by statements in the RBB “Abendschau” on Tuesday.
She cited arguments against exmatriculation, such as the basic right to free choice of career.
“I fundamentally reject de-registration for political reasons.” And further: “Science lives from exchange, lives from internationality, lives from international students.
And of course there are sometimes conflicts on campus.
And we have to contain them.”
The victim's brother, comedian Shahak Shapira, had already sharply criticized the choice of words on X, formerly Twitter.
“WHAT?
"Conflict"?
“He almost died from a cerebral hemorrhage,” he wrote.
Some politicians also criticized the statements in the “Bild” newspaper as trivializing.
On Wednesday, Czyborra shared her view: A fundamental distinction must be made between, on the one hand, acts of violence, anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred, and, on the other hand, expressions of political opinion.
“I continue to reject de-registrations based on political opinions.
A democracy must accommodate different political opinions within this framework.”
According to the Free University (FU), under the current legal situation in Berlin, it is not possible to deregister students for regulatory reasons.
A corresponding regulation was abolished in 2021.
FU President Günter Ziegler told the “Abendschau”: “I have the impression that we need to sharpen things up, at least in the tools we have.” And that the previously possible three-month house ban may not be enough for the current situations become.
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Rally at FU is coming up
The FU is scheduled to hold a rally on Thursday under the title “Solidarity with Palestine”.
A private person had registered 100 participants (for 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.), said a police spokeswoman.
The location is Otto-von-Simson-Straße 26, where the large FU cafeteria is located.
According to the police, the title of the announced event also states that the rally is directed “against the selective solidarity of the university management and restrictions on democratic rights.”
On the same date, a call for a demo from a “Palestine Committee FU Berlin” is circulating on social media, with the inscription “Freedom for Palestine!” among other things.
When asked by the dpa on Wednesday, the university initially left the question of how the FU wanted to deal with the registered demo open.
The university has come under criticism from several quarters after 30-year-old Jewish student Lahav Shapira was hospitalized at the weekend with broken bones in his face.
A 23-year-old pro-Palestinian fellow student is said to have hit and kicked him in the nightlife district in Berlin-Mitte.
The federal government's anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, then told the “Tagesspiegel” that the university management was “much too tolerant”.
Among other things, a lecture hall occupation by a group called “FU Students for a Free Palestine” caused a stir in December.
Lior Steiner from the Berlin Jewish Student Association said on Tuesday in the RBB that as soon as Israel's right to exist is denied and clearly anti-Semitic messages are conveyed to the outside world, this no longer has anything to do with freedom of expression.
Several student associations are calling for the exclusion and ban of anti-Semitic and extremist groups on campus.
Federal Minister: Universities are not legally exempt areas
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) called on universities to take consistent action.
Anti-Semitism must have clear consequences, she told the Germany editorial network (Wednesday).
“University management must therefore make use of all the options to which they are legally entitled.” Universities are places of maximum freedom, but not lawless areas.
In the hospital, the injured Lahav Shapira was robbed, as his brother Shahak Shapira reported on X.
However, there is probably no evidence of a targeted act.
“Unfortunately, unauthorized people managed to get into a ward that was actually locked and stole property from a total of three patients,” the “BZ” quoted a Charité spokesman as saying.
dpa