Demonstrations: University Association: Universities are not places for violent protests

The university association, student and police representatives have criticized the occupations of universities by pro-Palestinian activists. Universities are places of differentiated intellectual debates, said the President of the German University Association, Lambert T. Koch, to the German Press Agency. They are “not places for violent and out-of-control protests, as recently happened at the HU and now also at the FU Berlin.”

On Tuesday, the Free University (FU) temporarily stopped operations because 150 activists occupied the courtyard. The police cleared the area in the afternoon. According to the university, activists also tried to occupy rooms and lecture halls at the university and property was damaged. Officials in Leipzig were also called to a similar operation. There, around 50 activists occupied the auditorium and inner courtyard. The police cleared the lecture hall in the evening and said there were currently 13 suspects. Activists protested at Humboldt University on Friday. Around 150 people came together for an unregistered rally.

“Anyone who preaches intolerance should not count on tolerance”

Commenting on the events in Berlin, Koch said that the boundaries from legitimate criticism of Israel to anti-Semitism and from understandable compassion for the Palestinian civilian population to blatant support for the terrorist organization Hamas are being exceeded again and again at an alarming rate. It is right for university management to exercise their domestic rights. “Anyone who preaches intolerance must not count on tolerance,” it said. “We owe this not only, but especially to the Jewish university members who have been fearing for their safety at German universities since October 7th.”

The Federal Government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, certified that the police and judiciary in Germany have done excellent work in dealing with anti-Semitic demonstrations since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. This was recently shown by the Berlin police’s consistent intervention in the pro-Palestinian protests in front of Berlin’s Humboldt University, where “unbearable hatred and incitement against Israel were spread” last Friday.

Student associations for consistent action by the universities

Student associations demanded consistent action from the universities. “The university management must name the “protests” for what they are: gatherings that make anti-Semitism socially acceptable and massively endanger the safety of Jewish students,” said a letter from the Jewish Student Union of Germany (JSUD), the Ring of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS) and the Federal Association of Liberal University Groups, which was available to the Editorial Network Germany (RND). None of the occupiers mentioned the Israeli hostages, the letter said. The chairman of the RCDS called for action by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

According to the RND, the police union (GdP) called for a nationwide prevention plan to deal with anti-Semitic incidents at universities. “It is essential that all German universities and colleges implement the same procedures,” said union chairman Jochen Kopelke to the RND, referring to uniform house rules, criminal complaints and preventive measures.

In the USA, there have been protests at numerous universities for more than two weeks against Israel’s actions in the Gaza war and for solidarity with the Palestinians. The background is the unprecedented massacre with more than 1,200 deaths that terrorists from Hamas and other groups carried out in Israel on October 7th. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive. Given the high number of civilian casualties and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Israel has come under international criticism.