After an attack on a Jewish student in Berlin, German education minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has called on universities to take firm action.

Anti-Semitism must have clear consequences, the minister said on Wednesday.

“University management must, therefore, make use of all the legal options available to them,” said Ms Stark-Watzinger.”

Over the weekend, 30-year-old Lahav Shapira, a student at Berlin’s Free University, was hospitalised with broken bones in his face.

A 23-year-old pro-Palestinian from the same school is said to have punched and kicked him.

The police had reported that the two had initially got into an argument before the 23-year-old suddenly attacked.

The alleged perpetrator initially fled but was later identified.

A spokesman for the Berlin public prosecutor’s office on Tuesday said that an anti-Semitic motive for the offence did not seem far-fetched, based on the current state of the investigation.

Although universities are places of freedom, they are not lawless spaces, Ms Stark-Watzinger said.

She said this violence left her stunned and showed where hatred of Israel and Jews led.

“Everything must be done to combat this using constitutional means,” she added.

Germany’s Central Council of Jews had previously demanded strict consequences from the university on Tuesday.

There was no alternative to exmatriculating the student in question.

The university, however, said an expulsion is not legal, only a ban on entering school premises of up to three months was possible.

(dpa/NAN)