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Berlin Court Sentences Man to Three Years for Brutal Antisemitic Attack on Jewish Student

Lahav Shapira, a Jewish student at the Free University of Berlin, was physically assaulted last year. A German court sentenced his former fellow student, a 24-year-old Arab man, to three years in prison for dangerous bodily harm, citing an antisemitic motive. Photo: Screenshot.

A German court sentenced a 24-year-old man from Berlin to three years in prison on Thursday for the brutal assault of a Jewish student, ruling that the attack— which left the victim with serious injuries — was fueled by antisemitic hatred.

Formerly a student at the Free University of Berlin (FU), the defendant was found guilty for the attack on Lahav Shapira, the grandson of Amitzur Shapira — one of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Last year, Shapira, 32, was attacked outside a bar in the central Mitte district of Germany’s capital. His brother, Shahak Shapira — a popular comedian based in Germany — said the attack happened “unannounced.” Shahak claimed that the attacker recognized Lahav, spoke to him aggressively, and followed him when he left the bar.

Earlier in the trial, Lahav appeared as a witness and gave his testimony on the assault, recounting how the severe injuries he sustained forced him to stay at home for several weeks after the attack.

According to the verdict, the attacker struck Shapira with his fist and kicked him in the face, leaving the Jewish student with a complex facial fracture and a brain hemorrhage.

In the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas pogrom, in which over 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage, Shapira emerged as a vocal advocate for Israel on campus.

German prosecutor Tim Kaufmann, who had requested a sentence of two years and four months for the attack, described the assault on Shapira as a clear example of antisemitic violence.

“Lahav Shapira was attacked because he is Jewish and campaigned against antisemitism,” Kaufmann said.

During the trial, the defendant admitted following Shapira as he left the bar and physically assaulting him. However, he argued that the incident was not about politics or antisemitism, but rather was related to Shapira’s behavior in a WhatsApp group and his tearing down of a poster at the university.

“I am sorry to have caused you pain,” the defendant said, apologizing to Shapira before the verdict was announced.

After waiting a year and a half, Shapira said he was relieved the trial had concluded and hoped the outcome would serve as a lesson to others not to repeat such actions.

“I hope this will also be a sign … to do something about antisemitism in the university because we have a lot to deal with,” Shapira told DW News. “It’s a pretty hard time right now.”

“I hope that at least this will change something for some people,” he continued.

His brother called the verdict a “huge relief” but emphasized that action and reforms from the university are still needed, saying, “We’re not done yet.”

“My brother doesn’t even have an Israeli passport. He left Israel when he was 9,” Shahak wrote in a post on X. “Like many other Jewish students, he found himself feeling unsafe as his fellow students suddenly called for an Intifada against him.”

This conviction comes as authorities in Germany continue to grapple with a rising wave of antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism across the country.

On Thursday, German police arrested five students who participated in an anti-Israel protest at Humboldt University in Berlin, where they chanted antisemitic slogans and vandalized school property.

Earlier this month, German authorities issued deportation orders for three EU citizens and one US citizen living in Berlin over their participation in several pro-Hamas demonstrations.

According to the German State Office for Immigration, the four deportees, identified as Hamas sympathizers, “pose a threat to public order.”

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 recorded for the entire previous year, 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.

The post Berlin Court Sentences Man to Three Years for Brutal Antisemitic Attack on Jewish Student first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After Deadly Firebombing, Boulder Jews Forced to Hide Weekly Hostage March Due to Escalating Harassment

Boulder attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman poses for a jail booking photograph after his arrest in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 2, 2025. Photo: Boulder Police Department/Handout via REUTERS

A group of Jewish activists advocating for the Israeli hostages still held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza has announced plans to cease publicizing planned demonstrations and increase security in response to continued community intimidation in the months following a June 1 Molotov cocktail attack that left one person dead and 13 injured.

The group Run for Their Lives includes more than 230 chapters globally, and the one based in Boulder will now take extra measures to protect participants since the attack, for which authorities have charged alleged assailant Mohamed Sabry Soliman, which has in turn provoked further opposition.

Videos reviewed by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) show anti-Israel demonstrators calling event attendees “Nazi,” “racist,” and “genocidal c**t.”

A local politician running for city council has also demonized the hostage supporters.

CBS Colorado reported that Aaron Stone allegedly called Rachel Amaru, the chapter’s Jewish founder, a “Nazi,” a slur he defended as “a very strong word to use.” He further said that in looking at Amaru he was “not seeing a Jewish person” but rather “someone who is walking down the street talking about 20 hostages and ignoring the two million Palestinian hostages that are being kept in Gaza.”

Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the local Jewish Community Relations Council, said in a statement that “participants are facing a level of harassment that makes it impossible to continue safely in public view.”

Stefanie Clarke, who serves as co-executive director of Stop Antisemitism Colorado, added in a statement that “it is unacceptable that less than three months after a deadly antisemitic attack, Jews in Boulder are once again being forced into hiding.”

Clarke stated that “we will not be intimidated, and we will not be driven out of public spaces where we should feel safe. The fact that someone seeking a seat on City Council is at the center of this harassment should be cause for alarm. Boulder cannot claim to be a city of inclusion and justice while giving a platform to Jew hate.”

The mountain states regional branch of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released its own statement in support of the pro-Israel activists.

“We stand in firm solidarity with the Boulder chapter of Run for Their Lives following their difficult decision to no longer publicly disclose the location of their events,” the organization said. “It is deeply unfortunate that after enduring the horrific June 1 firebomb attack that resulted in the death of a community member, participants now face such persistent harassment that they must keep their gatherings secret to simply stay safe.”

On July 15, Soliman, who pleaded not guilty, waved his right to a preliminary hearing in a case where the 150 state charges and 12 federal charges include murder and attempted murder. He will see a judge on Tuesday for a scheduled arraignment and faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Prosecutors say that Soliman, an Egyptian who came to the United States on a B-2 Tourist Visa in August 2022, told police that “he wanted to kill all Zionist people” and that he sought to murder 20 of the demonstrators. A note found in his car read “Zionism is our enemies untill [sic] Jerusalem is liberated and they are expelled from our land.”

Soliman also reportedly said that he had planned the attack for a year and planned it for after his daughter’s graduation. Federal officials sought to deport Soliman’s family; however, a judge blocked that effort.

“This is a proper end to an absurd legal effort on the plaintiff’s part. Just like her terrorist husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] custody for removal as a result,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.”

In August, the ADL released a report ranking Colorado — which contains approximately 110,400 Jewish residents, accounting for 1.9 percent of the population — as eighth in the country for combating antisemitism.

“I am thrilled that the Anti-Defamation League has recognized Colorado as a national leader in fighting antisemitism, but there is much more to do,” the state’s governor Jared Polis said at the time. “Such hate and violence have no place in our Colorado for All, and that is why Colorado is leading the way to combat these trends and protect Coloradans’ right to worship how you want, making Colorado safer.”

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Lead Writer of Upcoming DC Comics Series Celebrated Oct. 7 Massacre in Resurfaced Social Media Posts

Gretchen Felker-Martin joins a virtual discussion from home

Gretchen Felker-Martin joins a virtual discussion from home. Photo: Screenshot

Gretchen Felker-Martin, an author and film critic who was recently announced as lead writer of the upcoming DC Comics series “Red Hood,” has an extensive history of endorsing terrorist acts and defending the murder of Jews and Israelis, according to a review of the writer’s social media posts. 

In the posts — screenshots of which circulated on X/Twitter and other platforms this week — Felker-Martin appeared to praise Osama bin Laden for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US and expressed support for Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.

During the Oct. 7 onslaught, as Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages in the deadliest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, Felker-Martin argued that Israeli civilians are “settlers” and an “occupying force whose daily lives serve to grind out the hope, culture, and memory of those they oppress.” She also seemingly defended Hamas’s murdering of Israeli babies, saying that Israel is an “imperialist nightmare” and that Hamas is trying to “survive their rule by any means necessary.”

Hamas is designated by several countries as a terrorist organization.

“You cannot subject human beings to brutal conditions under which no hope for a meaningful future exists and then blame them for violent action taken to correct this state. Free Palestine,” she wrote on Oct. 7. 

Later that month, Felker-Martin wrote that “Zionism is full-fledged Nazism and has accrued mainstream support throughout the west because of that, not in spite of it.”

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As the ensuing war in Gaza continued in the months ahead, Felker-Martin sharpened her criticisms of Israel, condemning Zionists as “crazy” and comparing them to “slime.” The writer also lambasted Neil Druckmann, the Israeli creator of the popular “The Last of Us” video game series, for being a “Zionist.” She encouraged fellow progressives not to support then-US Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, condemning Harris for not “moving an inch on the genocide.” She also falsely accused Israel of inflicting a “famine” in Gaza and repudiated actress Hailee Steinfeld as a “Zionist piece of s**t.” Steinfeld has seemingly not made public statements about Israel but came under fire from leftists after she visited the Jewish state with family in 2019 for a party. 

Felker-Martin separately defended Osama bin Laden’s role in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, writing that “blowing up the World Trade Center is probably the most principled and defensible thing he ever did.”

Jewish organizations and antisemitism watchdog groups quickly condemned the remarks. StandWithUs, a nonpartisan pro-Israel organization, urged DC Comics to reconsider hiring Felker-Martin, citing her inflammatory and offensive commentary.

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Belgian Doctor Suspended Over Antisemitic Social Media Posts Amid Rising Antisemitism in Western Health Care

People take part in pro-Hamas protest in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman

A Belgian hospital has suspended a physician after discovering antisemitic cartoons on his social media accounts, days after defending him for labeling a patient as Jewish in records for no apparent medical reason.

Last week, Dr. Qasim Arkawazy — a radiologist at AZ Zeno Campus Knokke-Heist in the town of Knokke, Belgium — listed “Jewish (Israeli)” as a medical problem in the report of a nine-year-old girl treated for arm pain.

The Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID), a Belgian nonprofit that combats antisemitism, filed a formal complaint with both law enforcement and the country’s medical authorities, urging a swift response to the incident.

Sparking outrage within Belgium’s Jewish community, this latest controversy reflects a broader wave of antisemitism in health-care settings, raising concern among Jewish patients across Western countries.

Shortly after the incident, the hospital initially defended Arkawazy’s decision to note the patient’s ethnicity “for medical reasons,” later acknowledging it “could be seen as offensive” and confirming that the patient’s digital file had been updated.

However, JID’s complaint prompted an investigation that uncovered several antisemitic posts on Arkawazy’s social media, ultimately leading to his suspension.

According to multiple reports, Arkawazy — a Shi’ite Muslim originally from Baghdad, Iraq — had shared several antisemitic cartoons on Facebook in the months following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.

The posts included a cartoon showing several babies decapitated by the tip of a Star of David, along with an AI-generated image portraying Hasidic Jews as vampires poised to devour a sleeping baby.

“AZ Zeno immediately launched an internal investigation to carefully map out all the elements; an external investigation is also underway,” the hospital said in a statement.

“The doctor involved was suspended with immediate effect so that the investigation can proceed calmly and thoroughly,” the statement read.

The incident in Belgium comes amid a surge of medical professionals in several Western countries voicing antisemitic sentiments, including outright death threats against Israelis.

Last month, three Dutch hospitals canceled or refused to host lectures by Israeli physician Dr. Amit Frenkel, head of intensive care at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, who was scheduled to speak about treating victims of mass-casualty events, including terrorist attacks.

The hospitals cited “serious concerns” over safety, warning of possible violence from anti-Israel activists.

In Italy, two medical workers filmed themselves at their workplace discarding medicine produced by the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals in protest against the Jewish state and the war in Gaza.

Meanwhile, a doctor in the UK was allowed to return to work last month after praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler during an antisemitic rant and making racist comments about a colleague.

In the UK, other troubling incidents have drawn attention, including one at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), which recently apologized after a patient reported anti-Israel posters displayed at a facility.

The posters — bearing slogans such as “Zionism is Poison,” “Free Palestine,” and accusations that Israel starves and kills Palestinians — left the patient fearing she might receive substandard care if staff learned she was Jewish.

In a separate incident, midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who resigned from her position after her anti-Israel social media posts were exposed, has now filed a claim against Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, alleging a violation of her rights.

In her posts, Mohamied both defended and celebrated the Oct. 7 atrocities and made other antisemitic remarks.

In other Western countries, hostility toward Israel among health-care providers has at times escalated into violent threats.

In the Netherlands, police opened an investigation into nurse Batisma Chayat Sa’id, who allegedly made antisemitic comments and threatened to administer lethal injections to Israeli patients.

The nurse’s alleged threat mirrors a similar incident in Australia, in which video showed two nurses — Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh — posing as doctors and making inflammatory statements.

The widely circulated footage showed Abu Lebdeh declaring she would refuse to treat Israeli patients and instead kill them, while Nadir made a throat-slitting gesture and claimed he had already killed many.

Following the incident, New South Wales authorities in Australia suspended their nursing registrations and banned them from working as nurses nationwide.

They were also charged with federal offenses, including threatening violence against a group and using a carriage service to threaten, menace, and harass.

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