Berlin judges have approved a Jewish student’s request to go to trial against the Free University of Berlin (FU) over its alleged failure to combat antisemitism.
Lahav Shapira was attacked and wounded by another student in February 2024, and subsequently accused the university of not preventing antisemitic discrimination, thus violating the Berlin Higher Education Act. Section 5b (2) of the act says that universities are obliged to prevent discrimination on the grounds of gender, ethnic origin, racist or antisemitic attribution, and to eliminate existing discrimination.
Presiding judge Edgar Fischer of the Administrative Court of Berlin ruled on Tuesday that a trial will be needed to determine whether the university has taken sufficient measures to protect Jewish students. The trial is expected to take place in October.
According to Tagesspiegel, Shapira’s lawyer Kristin Pietrzyk hailed the judges’ decision as a “great success.”
“The court has made it clear that the university must explain itself,” she said. “It will be instructive to hear what measures the university has taken.”
This comes despite FU claiming it was not inactive, with its lawyers requesting that Shapira’s lawsuit be dismissed. The judge, however, disagreed, heeding Shapira’s claim that the hostile environment created hindered his educational experience. He told the court that pro-Palestinian groups had held anti-Israel and antisemitic events – including a student meeting on the day of the trial, named “How we globalize the Intifada.”
“To take seminars, you have to accept that you will be insulted,” he said, adding that in some cases, rooms were blocked.
Heike Kleffner, executive director of the Association of Victims of Right-Wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence, told the daily Tagesspiegel that his case is of fundamental importance.
“According to the higher education laws of the states, the universities are obliged to live up to their responsibility and take measures to protect them,” she said.
Two assault cases
The trial against FU has sprung from two victims of assault cases in which Shapira is involved, and which involved other FU students, leading Shapira to conclude that the university was violating the act.
On Thursday, July 17, Shapira appeared in court and accused a defendant of denying him access to an occupied lecture hall during a pro-Palestinian protest in December 2023, and said he was then grabbed, pushed, and insulted.
The court initially decided on a penalty of €1500 for the defendant, but he appealed, and the case will progress to trial.
This was preceded by another trial in April 2025, which led to the attacker being sentenced to three years in prison. That case centered on a 24-year-old man who was convicted of attacking Shapira in February 2024.
Police reports at the time said that the younger man assaulted Shapira after the pair argued. However, Shapira said there had been no such dispute. He suffered severe facial fractures, a brain hemorrhage, and significant eye damage in the assault.
Shapira’s mother, Tzipi Lev, told Ynet that her son’s attacker “was full of hate.”
German police have identified him as Mustafa S.
“We won’t be silent about this. We already have a bloody history here, but I’m not afraid. I raised my sons to be proud of their Judaism and their Israeli identity. If we start to fear, we lose our right to exist,” Lev said.
Mustafa apologized to Shapira shortly before the verdict, saying, “I am sorry to have caused you pain,” according to DPA.
This particular case garnered significant media attention as Shapira is the grandson of Amitzur Shapira, an Israeli athletics coach who was murdered in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
Shapira has engaged in pro-Israel activism at the Free University since October 7.