A call by a student group with links to Islamism causes a stir at Berlin’s Charité hospital. The management reacts by dissolving the group, while leading doctors’ representatives demand clear consequences.
A serious case of anti-Semitism has caused a stir at the Charité university hospital in Berlin. In mid-October, a call to participate in a charity event with a so-called “Islamist connection” from the group “Muslim Students of Charité” circulated in student WhatsApp groups at Charité. All proceeds were to go to the organisation “Islamic Relief Deutschland e. V.”, which is suspected of actively promoting terror against Israel.
In a text that, according to the newspaper Die Welt, was circulated in student circles, the group denies the massacre of more than 1,400 Israelis and describes a scenario in which the Israeli government has issued a declaration of war. The text ends with the desire for total Islamisation.
The response of the Charité management was to dissolve the group and make its website inaccessible. “Anti-Semitism is not tolerated at the Charité”, according to the official statement, which is criticised as insufficient by the Jewish Student Union. They emphasise the importance of education in the fight against Muslim hatred of Israel and Jews.
Andreas Gassen from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and Klaus Reinhardt, head of the German Medical Association, suggest that people who do not identify with the values of the German constitution, act in an anti-Semitic manner or support terrorist groups should not be granted a licence to practise medicine. This should be explicitly taken into account as part of academic medical training.
The incident at the Charité has triggered a broad debate on how to deal with anti-Semitism and extremist tendencies in the academic environment. Calls for stricter measures and clear consequences for such behaviour are gaining in importance.