Around four months after the anti-Semitic attack on him, student Lahav Shapira filed a lawsuit against the Free University of Berlin (FU) with the Berlin Administrative Court. The university had allowed “anti-Semitic language to become concrete actions,” ZDF quoted from the lawsuit on Tuesday. The court confirmed receipt of the lawsuit upon request (ref. VG12k356.24).
The plaintiff, who was 30 at the time, was allegedly attacked by his 23-year-old fellow student Mustafa A. at the beginning of February. After being punched and kicked on Berlin’s Brunnenstrasse, Shapira was taken to hospital with fractures to his face.
According to the indictment, the Free University “did not take adequate measures to prevent or structurally eliminate anti-Semitic discrimination against the plaintiff or other Jewish students.”
The university tolerated the anti-Semitic mood that led to the attack for too long. It has a duty to ensure a discrimination-free environment. The plaintiff is citing the Berlin University Act, which obliges universities to prevent discrimination, particularly on the basis of anti-Semitic attributions.
The police’s state security department had launched an investigation against the suspect, who was said to have previously been involved in a lecture hall occupation by pro-Palestinian activists. Mustafa A. is a German of Arab descent. The university had banned A. from entering the premises.
Shapira was born in Israel and has lived in Germany since 2002. He is the brother of the comedian Shahak Shapira. As a teenager, Lahav Shapira was insulted as a “Jewish pig” by neo-Nazis in Saxony-Anhalt.