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Germany’s Parliament Moves to Combat Antisemitism at Universities
Students at Berlin’s UdK University display palms stained with red to symbolize blood during a Nov. 13 pro-Hamas protest. Photo: Screenshot
Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, overwhelmingly passed a motion on Wednesday to address antisemitism and hostility toward Israel in schools and universities, seeking to combat a surge in pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses and antisemitic incidents across the country.
After the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Germany has seen a record increase in antisemitic incidents and disruptive pro-Hamas protests, including the occupation of university buildings. The Oct. 7 atrocities, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were abducted to Gaza, started the Israel-Hamas war.
The parliamentary motion stipulates that the federal government — in collaboration with the ministers of education and the German Rectors’ Conference, an association of state and state-recognized universities — must ensure that antisemitic behavior in educational institutions results in sanctions.
“This includes the consistent enforcement of house rules, temporary exclusion from classes or studies, and even … expulsion,” the motion reads.
According to the proposal, the federal government should also increase funding for research on antisemitism and contemporary Jewish studies, while also supporting cooperation with Israeli science and opposing any boycott of the Jewish state.
The motion aims at halting the activities of groups promoting antisemitism, including the boycott, divestment, and, sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state. Last year, Germany’s federal domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), classified BDS as a “suspected extremist case.”
Germany previously adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum. It is now used by hundreds of governing institutions — including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations — and presumably will be the basis for enforcing last week’s resolution.
According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.
Last week, when presenting the resolution against campus antisemitism, parliamentary officials emphasized that Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff are “exposed to strong hostility and personal threats, increasingly violence.”
“The brutal massacre perpetrated by the terrorist organization Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, and the war in the Gaza Strip … have brought the Middle East conflict back into focus, especially in schools and universities,” officials said.
Jewish students at German universities widely expressed a growing sense of insecurity and uneasiness following Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, amid a slew of incidents purportedly meant to protest the war in Gaza.
In December 2023, for example, police were forced to clear a lecture hall at the Free University of Berlin occupied by pro-Hamas activists. That incident came days after dozens of students at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) staged a protest that involved them sitting around a table with their palms facing outwards painted in red ink to symbolize blood. While the gesture was apparently intended to condemn the German government’s support for Israel’s defensive military operation in Gaza, several observers noted a striking similarity with the notorious lynching of two Israeli military reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Avrahami, in the West Bank city of Ramallah in October 2000. One of their killers appeared at the window of the police station delightedly displaying his blood-stained palms to the appreciative crowd gathered outside following the murder of the two Israelis.
Germany’s education minister said in December 2023 that students who engage in antisemitic agitation could face expulsion from their universities, addressing concerns voiced by the Jewish student union.
A year later, the University of Leipzig canceled a lecture by Israeli historian Benny Morris following student protests described by the school as “understandable, but frightening in nature.” Morris, one of Israel’s leading public intellectuals, was scheduled to deliver a lecture about extremism and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in which the Jewish state secured its independence, at the university on Thursday as part of a lecture series on antisemitism. However, the university nixed the event after various groups, including Students for Palestine Leipzig, called for the lecture to be canceled, arguing Morris — who has expressed political opinions associated with both the left and the right — held “deeply racist” views against Palestinians.
To help combat an atmosphere of hostility toward Israelis and Jews, last week’s resolution calls for increased support and training for educators. It also requires students to engage more with Jewish life, including visiting a memorial site at least once during their school years.
Additionally, it demands more security for Jews at universities, regardless of whether they are students, staff, or faculty.
The Left Party (Die Linke) and the newly formed left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) were the only parties not to support the measure, with the former abstaining and the latter voting against it. Left Party member Nicole Gohlke criticized the initiative, stating that its proponents were calling for the use of the police and intelligence services instead of building bridges and creating spaces for dialogue.
In November, the parliament had already reaffirmed its stance against antisemitism with a broader resolution, one of its goals being to stop supporting organizations and projects that spread antisemitism or question Israel’s right to exist.
Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism amid the war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total for all of the prior year and reached the highest annual count on record, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).
The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally-funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.
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Syria’s President Visits Saudi Arabia in First Foreign Trip Since Assad’s Fall
Syria’s newly appointed president for a transitional phase Ahmed al-Sharaa meets Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salam, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 2, 2025. Photo: Bandar Algaloud Saudi Royal Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS
Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday in his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, signaling a shift in regional alliances and a move away from Iran as the country’s main ally in the Middle East.
After meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Sharaa said in a statement that they discussed strengthening bilateral ties, regional developments, and cooperation in humanitarian and economic matters, along with “extensive future plans in energy, technology, education, and health.”
Last week, Sharaa became Damascus’s transitional president after leading a rebel campaign that ousted long-time Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war.
According to an announcement by the military command that led the offensive against Assad, Sharaa was given the authority to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional period and to suspend the country’s constitution.
The collapse of al-Assad’s regime was the result of an offensive spearheaded by Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate.
Al Sharaa is in Saudi Arabia, his first ever official visit since the ouster of Assad pic.twitter.com/e5qUUsPv7C
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) February 2, 2025
During the “Conference for Announcing the Victory of the Syrian Revolution,” Sharaa said that the first priority was to fill the government vacuum “in a legitimate and legal way.”
Since Assad’s fall, the new Syrian government has sought to strengthen ties with Arab and Western leaders.
In these efforts, Saudi Arabia has played a key role, hosting Damascus’s new foreign and defense ministers in early January and later organizing a meeting with Syrian, Arab, and Western officials.
Last week, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani became the first head of state to visit Damascus after the collapse of Assad’s regime.
Syria’s new diplomatic relationships reflect a distancing from its previous allies, Iran and Russia. Iran, for example, has not reopened its embassy in Damascus, which was a central part of its self-described “Axis of Resistance” against US-backed Israel, including Assad’s Syria and a network of terrorist proxies — primarily Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Russia seeks to preserve access to its air and sea bases in Syria, but Moscow took in Assad when he fled the country in December. Syria’s new government has requested Assad’s extradition.
The Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on opposition protests in 2011 sparked the Syrian civil war, during which Syria was suspended from the Arab League for more than a decade.
The new Syrian government appears focused on reassuring the West and working to get sanctions lifted, which date back to 1979 when the US labeled Syria a state sponsor of terrorism and were significantly increased following Assad’s violent response to the anti-government protests.
However, Damascus still faces significant instability and challenges, including threats from the Islamic State terrorist group and other militants in the country. On Monday, a car bomb exploded in Manbij in northern Syria, killing at least 19 people, mostly women, and leaving over a dozen wounded.
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Trump Hints at Openness to West Bank Annexation, Touts Israel’s Success Despite Being ‘Very Small Piece of Land’
US President Donald Trump (R) in the Oval of the White House in January 2025. Photo: Fortune via Reuters Connect
US President Donald Trump on Monday did not bat down the prospect of Israel annexing parts of the West Bank, noting that the Jewish state is a “very small piece of land” and praising Israelis for their “amazing” accomplishments despite their country’s size.
While speaking to reporters from the Oval Office, Trump was asked whether he supports Israel potentially annexing the West Bank. Though Trump refused to answer the question directly, he seemed to indicate dissatisfaction with the size of Israel’s territorial boundaries.
“Well, I’m not going to talk about that,” Trump said regarding West Bank annexation. “It [Israel] certainly is a small country in terms of land.”
Trump then picked up a stationery pen and juxtaposed it to his presidential desk, comparing the size of Israel to its Middle Eastern neighbors.
“That’s not good, you know? It’s a pretty big difference,” Trump said, regarding the size of Israel.
“I use that as analogy. It’s pretty accurate, actually,” Trump said. “It’s a pretty small piece of land, and it’s amazing that they’ve been able to do, what they’ve been able to do when you think about it. There’s a lot of good, smart brainpower. But it is a very small piece of land, no question about it.”
Trump has previously indicated a potential belief that Israel should expand its territorial boundaries. In August 2024, while still campaigning for president, Trump called Israel “tiny” and questioned if the country could expand.
“When you look at the map, a map of the Middle East, Israel is a tiny little spot compared to these giant landmasses. It’s really a tiny spot. I actually said, ‘Is there any way of getting more?’” Trump said
Observers have pondered whether Trump would support a formal annexation of parts of the West Bank in his second term. Although Trump has yet to indicate support for such measures, Jewish billionaire Miriam Adelson, one of the president’s most generous campaign donors, allegedly requested support for West Bank annexation in exchange for financial assistance. However, a spokesperson for Adelson denied that she made such a request.
The first Trump administration handled the West Bank in a different fashion than its predecessors, suggesting that the White House might be open to upending traditional policy regarding the territory. In 2019, the Trump administration reversed the US policy that declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal. Explaining the policy shift, then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace.”
Proponents of annexation argue that establishing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank would protect the Jewish state from future terrorist attacks by groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while also providing residents a better quality of life.
However, opponents of West Bank annexation argue that such an action would deprive Palestinians of the ability to have their own state and trigger an onslaught of backlash from Israel’s Western allies and international institutions such as the UN.
The Trump administration has issued an executive order rescinding sanctions imposed during the Biden administration against Israelis living in the West Ban. The sanctions accused them of behaving violently against Palestinians in the West Bank. Mike Huckabee, the nominee for US ambassador to Israel, has publicly declared that he will refer to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria,” adopting terminology preferred by Israel.
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US Justice Department Forms Antisemitism Task Force Following Trump Executive Order
A woman walks past the US Department of Justice Building, in Washington, DC, Dec. 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Al Drago
The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that it is has created a “multi-agency” Task Force to Combat Antisemitism to fulfill an executive order issued last week by President Donald Trump.
“The Task Force’s first priority will be to root out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” the department said in a press release, which noted that the group will be housed inside the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and include representatives from the departments of education and health and human services.
“Antisemitism in any environment is repugnant to this nation’s ideals,” said Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights who has been appointed to lead the initiative, said in a statement. “The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending antisemitism in our schools.”
The announcement came less than a week after Trump directed federal agencies to combat campus antisemitism and hold pro-terror extremists accountable for the harassment of Jewish students, fulfilling a promise he made while campaigning for a second term in office. Continuing work started started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — the new executive order, titled, “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”
Additionally, the order initiates a full review of the explosion of campus antisemitism on US colleges across the country after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a convulsive moment in American history to which the previous administration struggled to respond during the final year and a half of its tenure.
Jewish activists and civil rights groups praised Monday’s announcement for being responsive to the Jewish community’s concerns about rising hatred and a perceived refusal to condemn discrimination when its perpetrators are left-wing progressives.
“ADL long advocated for the creation of an interagency task force to combat antisemitism,” the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a statement posted on X/Twitter. “We welcome this important step by [the president] and the Justice Department and look forward to working together to tackle antisemitism on college campuses and beyond.”
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard University graduate student who is currently suing the school for allegedly neglecting to punish antisemites, said, “American Jewish students: help is on the way,” while Eyal Yakoby, a University of Pennsylvania alumnus who sounded the alarm that antisemitism at the institution had reached crisis levels following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, proclaimed, “Promises made, promises kept.”
Campus antisemitism was the subject of a major recent report by several committees of the US House of Representatives that accused college officials of choosing to protect their brands over fighting anti-Jewish hatred.
“The committee found that so-called university leaders deliberately chose to withhold support from Jewish communities on campus, demonstrating a refusal to address the hostile environments at their institutions,” the report said. “Jewish students, faculty, and staff often felt abandoned by administrators’ passive and muted responses to the explosion of antisemitic hate on campus. The committee’s investigation found that these failures to act were not mere oversights but intentional decisions.”
The report added that some schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania, pantomimed corrective action to disruptive behavior, assuring the public that it took rules violations, including the commandeering of campus property with “Gaza Solidarity Encampments,” seriously — but it punished very few students for misconduct and those it did were given slaps on the wrist, according to critics.
Egregious conduct which prompted civil litigation evaded disciplinary action, it continued, explaining that nearly 100 students who participated in an encampment which barred Jewish students from accessing sections of campus at the University of California, Los Angeles “signed resolution agreements allowing them to escape disciplinary consequences” and “none were disciplined.”
In last week’s executive order, Trump denounced his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, for refusing to handle the problem.
“This failure is unacceptable and ends today,” he said. “It shall be the policy of the United States to combat antisemitism vigorously, using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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