By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BERLIN/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – German police have detained a 23-year-old man for “attacking and seriously injuring” the grandson of an Israeli athletics coach who was murdered by Palestinian fighters in the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972, several sources confirmed Monday.
Police in Berlin, the capital, arrested the man following the “hate crime” attack against Lahav Shapi, a 30-year-old student at Berlin’s Free University, his family and law enforcement said.
Shapi was hospitalized and underwent surgery for non-life-threatening injuries to his face following the attack by a fellow Free University student in a Berlin bar, Israeli media reported.
He is the grandson of Israeli athletics coach Amitzur Shapira, who was among 11 Israelis killed by Palestinians in the Munich Olympics massacre attack in 1972.
One West German police officer also died in a failed rescue attempt, as well as most members of the Palestinian Black September group that had infiltrated the Olympic Village.
Knowing the history of his late grandfather, Lahav Shapira had reportedly argued with a fellow student over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“During the argument, the younger man is said to have suddenly hit the older man [Shapira] in the face several times, causing him to fall,” a police statement said.
KICKING STUDENT
“The perpetrator is then said to have kicked the man who was lying on the ground.”
His older brother, Shahak Shapira, is a prominent comedian and writer who has “lampooned Germany’s relationship to the Holocaust,” Israeli media noticed.
The brothers moved from Israel to Germany with their mother as children, where Shahak Shapira made news in 2015 after several Arab men beat him on a Berlin train.
He was reportedly attacked after objecting to their singing anti-Israel and antisemitic chants.
However, Shahak Shapira denied there had been a political debate about the Israel-Hamas war ahead of the latest attack. “He was recognized by the attacker in the bar, who followed him and his companion, spoke to them aggressively, and then punched him in the face unannounced.”
Shapira’s mother, Tzipi Lev, who also lives in Germany, told Israeli media her son had been “sitting in a bar with his girlfriend. She felt like someone was constantly looking at her, and then Lahav told her that it was someone he knew from university.” She described the attacker as an Arab student.
Lev alleged that the younger student “suddenly started attacking Lahav in a very harshly.
KIDNAPPED PEOPLE
She recalled that “he shouted at him: ‘Why are you posting pictures of kidnapped people?’ He was full of hate.”
On Monday, Lahav Shapira offered his own account to Israeli media from his hospital room, saying: “He suddenly punched me from the side. Then another one, and I lost my balance.”
He added: “I tried to get up, so he kicked me in the face. And then when I got up, he ran away from the scene.”
Shapira has engaged in pro-Israel activism at the Free University since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 and taking more than 250 people hostage, several sources said.
He was one of several students to clash with pro-Palestinian students there in December.
Shahak Shapira tweeted that his brother had been a target online and in real life. He said he had not commented about the incidents to avoid betraying his brother’s identity. “This consequence [an attack] was almost unavoidable, and I feared it from the beginning,” Shahak wrote about Lahav’s assault.
The Free University in Berlin has been the site of several pro-Palestinian protests since the start of the war, all unauthorized, as the university has not sanctioned any demonstrations.
DEMONSTRATIONS UNUSUAL
The demonstrations are relatively unusual in Germany, where criticism of Israel “is widely discouraged and antisemitism is heavily criminalized, reflecting the country’s reckoning with its perpetration of the Holocaust,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) commented.
However, the latest attacks highlighted reports of rising antisemitism, including in universities.
In neighboring the Netherlands, people have reacted in recent days with anger at the decision by Hogeschool Utrecht (HU) to postpone a series of lectures about the Holocaust.
The academic institution, known internationally as HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, claimed the decision was because the safety of speakers could not be guaranteed.
But Dutch daily De Telegraaf (The Telegraph) quoted a spokesperson as saying earlier that more time was needed to put the October 7 Hamas attack “in a broader perspective.”
Following public outrage, the Holocaust lectures resumed.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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