After an attack in Berlin-Mitte in which his brother Lahav was seriously injured, comedian and author Shahak Shapira criticized the Free University (FU) Berlin. There are “many unanswered questions” about the university’s behavior in recent months, Shahak Shapira told the Berliner Zeitung.
Jewish and Israeli students have repeatedly made it public in recent months that they do not feel safe at the university. Lahav and Shahak Shapira come from Israel, Lahav studies at the FU. There he tried to take part in pro-Palestinian actions as an observer, such as occupying a lecture hall, and wanted to hang posters with the faces of people who had been kidnapped from Israel to Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. He was filmed.
“Instead of raising awareness, some dubious Twitter accounts were left to frame certain students as right-wing extremists or violent with meaningless video clips, where they were the ones who were physically attacked and excluded from public demonstrations or even lecture halls at their university,” said Shahak Shapira. In general, in his opinion, the FU “left its students alone and ignored their reports,” which contributed to the feeling of insecurity. “Is the FU now to blame for my brother being attacked? No. But the fact that the FU has allowed an atmosphere to develop from which such an attack can emerge is difficult to deny.”
Lahav Shapira was so brutally attacked shortly before midnight on Saturday on Brunnenstrasse near Rosenthaler Platz that he suffered fractures to his face and had to be operated on in hospital. In an initial report, the Berlin police wrote that a “dispute among students” was the trigger.
Shahak Shapira, who spoke to his brother after the attack, contradicts this account. There was no argument between his brother and the 23-year-old alleged perpetrator that evening. The attacker recognized his brother, who was in a bar in Mitte with a friend, “stared at him and his companion the whole time and then followed them outside to attack him.”
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Shahak Shapira: “Many unanswered questions” to the FU Berlin
His brother is now doing “okay”, his face looks terrible, “but it can only get better,” said Shahak Shapira on Monday. He couldn’t yet say how long his brother would have to stay in the hospital. The police are also still investigating whether he had been threatened by the attacker before.
According to the Berlin police, the attacker is said to have “suddenly punched Lahav Shapira in the face several times” and also kicked him while he was already on the ground. The suspect fled, but was later found in his apartment in Schöneberg and the apartment was searched.
It is not the first time that Lahav Shapira has been the victim of a violent attack in Germany. The brothers came to Saxony-Anhalt from Israel with their mother more than 20 years ago; as a teenager, Lahav was attacked there by right-wing extremists. A large part of the family’s ancestors were murdered in the Holocaust. Lahav and Shahak’s grandfather, Amitzur Shapira, was taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists in the 1972 attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics.
After Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Lahav Shapira appeared on the sidelines of pro-Palestinian actions in Berlin, as an observer, and he openly represented a pro-Israel stance. That apparently made him a target. He was already being attacked on social media before this weekend.
Shahak Shapira wrote on He told the Berliner Zeitung that he had been worried about his brother’s safety in recent months: “If someone is defamed in such a way and violence against him has been and continues to be legitimized in so many comments, it can only end like this.” His brother continues to be attacked on social media even after the brutal physical attack – while he is still in hospital. One person wrote on X on Monday that Lahav Shapira was known as a “right-wing hothead,” while another person on
You can tell Shahak Shapira’s dismay at such comments about his seriously injured brother. “What action would legitimize almost shattering someone’s skull for doing this?” he asks.
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