By: Dim Amor

On Thursday, a Berlin court sentenced Mustafa A., a student of Palestinian origin, to three years in prison after convicting him of a violent antisemitic attack against Lahav Shapira – the grandson of the late Amitzur Shapira, one of the eleven Israeli athletes murdered in the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The violent assault occurred in early February 2024 during late night hours. According to the verdict, Mustafa A. attacked Shapira with his fists and continued kicking him while he lay helplessly on the ground. As a result of the brutal attack, Shapira suffered severe injuries – facial fractures, cerebral hemorrhage, and serious damage to his eye. Due to these severe injuries, he had to undergo several surgeries and lost his ability to eat solid food for an extended period of one month.

The two, attacker and victim, were not strangers to each other. They knew each other from a teacher training program, where Shapira managed an internal WhatsApp group for the students. According to Shapira, he asked participants in the group to refrain from posting antisemitic content and removed dozens of members who violated this rule. Mustafa A., for his part, claimed that he was not treated properly by Shapira.

According to the attacker's testimony, the violent incident occurred outside a pub, when he accused Shapira of tearing down pro-Palestinian posters. In response, Shapira explained that these posters included content calling for the destruction of Israel and described Hamas's terrorist attack on October 7 as a "freedom operation". Mustafa testified during the trial that "emotions took over him" and he subsequently lost control of his actions.

Despite Mustafa's attempt to claim that the attack was not motivated by political or antisemitic motives, a video found on his mobile phone the day after the attack unequivocally contradicted his version. In the video, Mustafa's friend can be heard saying: "Musti beat the hell out of the Jewish son of a bitch" – decisive evidence that led the court to determine that the background to the act was clearly antisemitic.

Mustafa's defense attorney stated during the trial that his client expressed regret for his actions, had previously attempted suicide, and even withdrew from his academic studies. As part of the legal proceedings, an initial compensation amount of 5,500 euros was transferred to the prosecution, but this offer was rejected by the prosecution.

The judges cast significant doubt on the sincerity of the defendant's remorse. Among other things, they noted that in an official statement submitted regarding his case, hobbies such as reading books and football were mentioned, but the substantial fact that Mustafa regularly trains in kickboxing – a martial art that was used during the violent attack – was omitted.

During his testimony in court, Shapira described a hostile and threatening atmosphere toward him on the university campus following the events of October 7. He told of leaflets distributed against him that called him a "Zionist" and "Satan". Due to the ongoing threats and dangerous atmosphere, Shapira was forced to move around with a bodyguard and felt that he was being hunted on campus because of his determined activity against antisemitism.

Although the prosecution requested a sentence of 28 months imprisonment for Mustafa, the court decided to be more severe with the defendant and sentenced him to 36 months of actual imprisonment. In its decision, the court noted that Mustafa did not express genuine remorse for his actions, and that the attack clearly stemmed from antisemitic hatred.

This case is not the first time Lahav Shapira has been attacked because of his Jewish identity. In 2010, when he was still a teenager, he was attacked in the German town of Laucha by a neo-Nazi who rushed toward him shouting "Jewish pig". The attacker punched him under his eye, knocked him to the ground, and kicked him in the head. Lahav's German friends tried to protect him, but without success. Fortunately, a passerby happened to be there at that moment, intervened, and managed to end the violent attack.

Following the recent antisemitic attack, Tzipi Lev, Lahav's mother, was interviewed and said: "My son was marked by them as a Zionist and did a lot of activity against antisemitism, for Israel, and for the release of the hostages. It is intolerable that you are attacked for fighting against antisemitism and racism. The law needs to be changed, so there will be a heavy punishment, and then they will think twice before doing such things".

The mother described the sequence of events of the recent attack: "Lahav was sitting in a bar on Friday with his girlfriend. She felt that someone was constantly looking at them, and then Lahav told her that it was someone he knew from the university and saw that he participates in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. When they left the bar, that person, an Arab, suddenly began to attack Lahav very severely. He shouted at him: 'Why are you hanging pictures of hostages?' He was full of hatred".

Tzipi Lev resolutely added: "We will not remain silent about this. Beyond the fact that we have a bloody history here, I am not afraid. I raised my sons to be proud of their Judaism and their Israeli identity, and the moment we fear, we have no right on this earth".

The severe verdict given in this case constitutes an important message in the fight against rising antisemitism in Europe in general and in Germany in particular, especially after the events of October 7. The fact that the German court imposed a harsher sentence than the prosecution requested emphasizes the seriousness with which the German legal system views attacks on antisemitic grounds, especially in a country that bears special historical responsibility regarding the protection of Jewish citizens.

This attack on Lahav Shapira is part of a worrying trend of increasing antisemitic incidents across Europe following the war in Gaza. Universities in Europe and North America have become focal points of anti-Israel activity, which in many cases slides into overt antisemitism and violence against Jewish and Israeli students.

The case of Lahav Shapira is a heartbreaking testimony to the tragic connection between past and present. As a direct descendant of one of the victims of the bloody tragedy at the Munich Olympics, Shapira himself fell victim to accursed hatred of Israel – this time at the hands of an assailant against the backdrop of the persistent Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The criminal attack and the severe sentence imposed on the assailant testify a thousand times over to the great complexity and relentless challenges facing Jews and Israelis residing on European soil at this time.

Photo: Lahav Shapira, from social networks, in accordance with Section 27a of the Copyright Law