On May 7, a protest camp of groups in solidarity with Palestine at the FU got evicted by the police. Over the last few days, we have held numerous discussions to reconstruct what exactly happened on that day and what we think the consequences should be.
For us, the picture is alarming. An eyewitness who was in the university building during the eviction reported: “I saw how the police ran after a person in the Silberlaube, then pushed them into a seminar room and threw them to the floor. I also saw how students who were standing in the building completely uninvolved were being beaten, pushed away by the police, pushed to the ground and grabbed in the face.” Media reports also show brutal physical violence by the police [1].
Another person reported the use of pepper spray against protesters as well as students who were not part of the occupation. Pepper spray was also used inside the university building. This information was confirmed to us several times by different people. We were also contacted by students who were still suffering from the effects of the pepper spray days later. Several students needed medical help due to the police brutality.
In an interview with rbb [2] immediately after the eviction, Günter M. Ziegler, President of the so-called Free University, described the university as a “place for dialog and exchange” and yet has not yet provided opportunities to create such a space for the university's students and staff. Through exchanges with Jewish and pro-Palestinian activists who have approached us and the Presidential Board and demanded these spaces, we know that the Presidential Board does not see itself as responsible for this. Even a “scientific dialog according to our values” (in the rbb interview) has not been initiated since the Hamas attack on the Israeli civilian population on October 7, 2023.
On May 10, the presidency of the so-called free university announced on Instagram that the protest camp had been evacuated due to a “threat to security”. [3] We wonder to what extent the police operation is supposed to have provided security. Police squads chased students through the corridors, was beating and kicking them, used pepper spray indoors, grabbed uninvolved people and threw them to the ground and pushed hundreds of students out of the building, sometimes violently. The university threatened to ban students, staff and lecturers from the building if they did not leave.
This police operation was not proportionate. Such an approach offers no security to anyone and cannot be justified. Numerous students who were physically injured, endangered and massively frightened by the police have contacted us. To date, there has been no offer of a meeting with these people from the Presidium. That is alarming!
In its statement [4], the university management constructs a threat to security posed by the protest camp, which was already apparent from the outset, and cites damage to property and the destruction of fire alarms as a reason for the eviction.[5] Here, a threat is constructed in retrospect that did not take place in this order: the destruction of fire alarm systems and the triggering of the fire alarm only took place after the eviction was ordered, not before, and thus could not have been a reason for the eviction. The university management is therefore distorting the facts in order to retroactively justify its own actions. We will not tolerate this and reiterate at this point that we hold the Executive Board responsible for the police brutality and endangerment of university members.
We see the eviction as being in continuity with the extreme shift to the right, which has recently been reflected, for example, in the threat to tighten the Higher Education Act and the reintroduction of the regulatory law. [6] The blanket condemnation of all Palestinian solidarity protests is discriminatory and the police are acting according to racist criteria The current smear campaign by the Springer press against critical voices is taking on frightening proportions. If the university management does not take a clear stance, it makes itself an accomplice to the reactionary and far-right forces that want to suppress any protest and any emancipatory movement. This presidium must take responsibility and resign!
We have already announced in our first statement [7] that we condemn the eviction regardless of the individual demands of the squatters. These demands also contain passages that we explicitly disagree with. For example, there is a demand for a “complete cultural and academic boycott of Israel”. Such a boycott would also include all critical, left-wing and emancipatory voices in the academic and cultural sector in Israel. For many months now, the Israeli civilian population has also been voicing fierce criticism of the government and its actions in the Gaza Strip. These voices need to be heard, as do all Palestinian and Palestine solidarity voices who are campaigning against the suppression of palestinians, against the current military offensive by the Israeli army and for an end to the war.
We are aware that some statements made during the occupation are perceived as anti-Semitic and as calls for violence. [8] An example of this is the call to “Join the worldwide Student Intifada”. Although the word “intifada” in Arabic can simply be translated as “uprising” or “rising up”, the historical context of the term leads many Jewish people in particular to understand it as a call for violence against Jews and to see these words in an anti-Semitic tradition. Discriminatory and violent statements must be responded to. However, this cannot be done through repression and eviction, but through exchange and dialog - also with the protesters. Even if dialogue is almost impossible in such an extremely polarized debate, police intervention completely destroys it.
It is important for us to distinguish between the form of protest and the problematic statements that were made. As we wrote in an earlier statement and as the lecturers also state in the open letter, the form of protest was peaceful. The occupation of university grounds has been a means of peaceful student protest for many decades and is a form of protest that should be tolerated by the university. This form of protest does not represent a threat to security per se and therefore in no way justifies an eviction, especially not in such a brutal manner. We therefore stand in solidarity with all those who experienced police violence and repression at the FU on May 7.
We expect the university management to take sustained and consistent action against anti-Semitism. Instead, however, we are observing that in dealing with the issue, the focus is on constant repression, intimidation and forced exmatriculation instead of prevention, thematization, debate and dialogue.
We are doing everything we can to facilitate this dialog. That's why we offered in our first statement that people can turn to us with their concerns, and receive free legal advice and support in cases of discrimination. The day after the eviction, we also organized an event with former FU lecturer Daniel Heinz, where the events were put into context and discussed. Over 70 students took part and the discussion was generally constructive. We want to create further opportunities for exchange in the coming days and are also committed to a critical academic discourse on the topic and do not want to give anti-Semitism any space. We have already made our position on the war in Gaza and Israel, on growing anti-Semitism and on racially motivated police violence clear in several statements since the Hamas attack on October 7. [9]
In addition to numerous student groups, over 1000 (as of 15.05.) [10] lecturers wrote an open letter to the President's Office criticizing the eviction and the brutal actions of the police. [11] We support this letter. After the eviction of the protest camp on May 10, the university management took a stand on Instagram and announced that it would take the lecturers' letter “very seriously”. [4] Politicians from the FDP, CDU and the Springer newspapers B.Z. and BILD took this as an opportunity to spread misinformation, “stunned” deny the lecturers their constitutionality [12] and defame them as anti-Semitic.
Other critical voices have not been addressed in any way by the university management, despite numerous statements by student initiatives, student groups and student representatives. Students are once again being ignored in the discourse and are not being asked to take part in the discussion. The university management has also not made any offers to students who have experienced violence. Such an approach is completely unacceptable and scandalous. We demand that the open letter from the lecturers is actually taken seriously, just like the critical voices from the student body. From our point of view, this would mean:
- to admit that the police operation on Tuesday was a massive mistake that jeopardized the safety of the university's students and lecturers, and not to construct a supposed security threat from the protesters via Instagram
- to waive the attendance requirement for that day for all students who were unable to attend classes due to the eviction
- to support students who were subjected to violence by the police by all means possible
- to refrain from police operations against students on campus in future
- to refrain from any criminal prosecution of the protesters
- to create a dialog and open spaces for exchange and debate
- to take sustained, consistent and preventative action against anti-Semitism, Racism and any other form of discrimination and to take a public stand against the racist actions of the police
- to stand behind the lecturers, students and other university members and against the smear campaign in BILD and B.Z.
We continue to offer students and student groups the opportunity to contact us with their reports and concerns about the protest camp and the eviction. Students can also register for a workshop organized by us with the political scientist Daniel Heinz, which will take place on 18 and 20 May and will be about anti-Semitism and racism at German universities.
We are also working on other formats to facilitate exchange about the war in Palestine, the Hamas attack and the rise in racism an anti-Semitism since October 7. We invite students and lecturers who would like to participate in the organization of such formats to contact us.
[1] Guardian video on police violence and pepper spray: https://youtu.be/9Txy6MnoEDE?si=YaEDaD0edhW5Q1UF
[2] FN RBB: https://youtu.be/SrrOmmz9b0Y?si=z45YjiK2hwo-8sVw
[4] Occupation and eviction of the theatre courtyard on May 7, 2024 / Open letter from Berlin university lecturers, Presidium FU (May 13, 2024): https://www.fu-berlin.de/campusleben/campus/2024/240513-faq-besetzung/index.html
[5] https://astafu.de/sites/default/files/2024-05/Screenshot_20240510-161037_Instagram.jpg
[6] See the statement of the RefRat HU (March 12, 2024): http://refrat.de/article/stellungnahme-berlhg-novelle-ordnungsrecht.html
[7] Statement regarding the eviction and police violence on 7.5.2024, AStA FU (7.5.2024): https://astafu.de/node/602
[8] Compare the reports by FURIOS (May 9, 2024): https://furios-campus.de/2024/05/09/warum-mit-studis-reden-wenn-man-sie-auch-raeumen-kann/; as well as the statements from student groups
[9] Compassion, visibility and solidarity for all those affected by the violence in Israel/Palestine! (November 7, 2023): https://astafu.de/node/582 Brutal anti-Semitic attack - Solidarity with our Jewish fellow student at FU Berlin (February 5, 2024): https://astafu.de/node/589 Demonstration against anti-Semitism (February 13, 2024): https://astafu.de/node/592 Statement on the occupation of lecture hall 1a on December 14, 2023 (February 15, 2024) https://astafu.de/node/593
[11] Statement from teachers at Berlin universities (May 8, 2024): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVy2D5Xy_DMiaMx2TsE7YediR6qifxoLDP1zIjKzEl9t1LWw/viewform
[12] Occupations of universities: Dispute over Palestine protests (May 9, 2024): https://taz.de/Besetzungen-von-Hochschulen/!6006389/