German minister prepares sack letters for pro-Palestinians lecturers

By Sebastian Kunigkeit, dpa I Monday, June 17, 2024

 

BERLIN – German Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is moving to dismiss top ministry official Sabine Döring after she reportedly considered sanctioning a group of educators for speaking up against the removal of a pro-Palestinian protest camp at a Berlin university.

The Education Ministry said on Sunday evening that Stark-Watzinger had sent a request to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to dismiss Döring, who is the second-highest ranking official after Stark-Watzinger within the ministry.

Unlike Stark-Watzinger, Döring is not an elected official but a public servant.

In early May, around 150 pro-Palestinian activists attempted to occupy a courtyard and set up tents at Berlin’s Free University, protesting against the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The school quickly called in the police and had the area cleared.

Around 100 lecturers from several Berlin universities then issued a letter in support of the students’ right to protest.

They wrote: “Regardless of whether we agree with the specific demands of the protest camp, we stand with our students and defend their right to peaceful protest.”

Public broadcaster ARD recently reported leaked internal emails showing that a legal review had been requested within the Education Ministry into whether it might be possible to cancel university funding in response to the letter.

Stark-Watzinger, who at the time had publicly slammed the lecturers over their support for the protest camp herself, confirmed that Döring, who is responsible for universities at the ministry, initiated the probe.

“I have arranged for the facts of the case to be investigated thoroughly and transparently,” said Stark-Watzinger, confirming that “an examination of potential consequences under funding law was indeed requested from the relevant departments.”

Döring had stated that she “had apparently expressed herself in a misleading manner when commissioning the legal review,” the minister said.

“Nonetheless, the impression was created that the Education Ministry was considering examining the consequences under funding law on the basis of an open letter covered by freedom of expression,” a step that would contradict the principles of academic freedom.

“There are no examinations of consequences under funding law due to statements covered by freedom of expression,” Stark-Watzinger stressed.

A total of 79 people were temporarily detained following the protest in May, according to police, and 80 criminal investigations and 79 misdemeanour proceedings have been initiated.

In the statement issued after police was called in to clear the camp, the lecturers called on “Berlin university management to refrain from police operations against their own students as well as from further criminal prosecution.”

Stark-Watzinger criticized the declaration again on Sunday for not mentioning the October 7 attacks by Palestinian extremist group Hamas and other militants on Israeli communities which triggered the war in Gaza.