Graffiti on the walls of Humboldt University in Berlin, where students defaced property with antisemitic slogans during an anti-Israel protest. Photo: Screenshot

German police arrested five students who participated in an anti-Israel protest at Humboldt University in Berlin, where they chanted antisemitic slogans and vandalized school property.

The unruly demonstration came as authorities in Germany continued to work to address the growing surge in antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism across the country.

On Wednesday, a group of students took over several buildings at Humboldt University, a public research university in central Berlin, and staged a demonstration against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They also called on the state government to halt the deportation of four Hamas sympathizers who participated in raucous anti-Israel protests and, according to German authorities, “pose a threat to public order.”

In the buildings, the students put up banners bearing slogans such as “You are complicit in genocide,” “There is only one state, Palestine 48,” and “Intifada until victory.”

They also defaced university property with banned slogans, including “Zionism is fascism” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which the German government prohibited last year for promoting the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.

🪧 Students held a pro-Palestinian protest at Berlin’s Humboldt University

🚔 Police forcibly detained at least 5 demonstrators as security forces moved in to disperse the crowd ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/wQm8Kjz1FW

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) April 16, 2025

There were also around 40 to 60 people outside the buildings staging a demonstration and chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Palestine,” “Boycott Israel,” “No borders, no deportations,” “Germany is a fascist country,” and “Resistance is an international right.”

After the university administration requested the removal of the protesters, local police intervened and arrested at least five people.

The European Jewish Congress, the representative umbrella organization of European Jewry, condemned the incident, stating that “hate must never be normalized.”

“Such hateful and inflammatory rhetoric fosters an atmosphere where Jewish students feel unsafe, unwelcome, and targeted,” the group wrote in a post on X. “These aren’t just words on a wall, they contribute to a climate of fear and exclusion.”

“Hate must never be normalized. Not in our societies, and not in our universities.”

We are appalled by the antisemitic vandalism at @HumboldtUni, where slogans like “From the river to the sea” and “Zionismus ist Faschismus” were scrawled across university property.

Such hateful and inflammatory rhetoric fosters an atmosphere where Jewish students feel unsafe,… pic.twitter.com/M9s0Y8aaq3

— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) April 17, 2025

Earlier this month, German authorities issued deportation orders for three EU citizens and one US citizen living in Berlin over their participation in several anti-Israel protests.

The four deportees, identified as Hamas sympathizers, have until April 21 to leave the country or risk being forcibly removed.

The German State Office for Immigration issued “residence termination notices” against the four individuals – two Irish citizens, a Polish citizen, and an American citizen – for their participation in pro-Hamas demonstrations, including a sit-in at Berlin’s central train station, a road blockade, and the occupation of a building at the Free University of Berlin (FU).

According to the deportation notice, they “pose a threat to public order” and “indirectly supported” terrorist groups like Hamas.

A spokesperson for the German Senate Department for the Interior announced that an appeal against the decision has been filed with the Supreme Court.

While legal representatives and experts have expressed concerns that the deportation orders violate civil liberties for EU citizens in Germany, as neither individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, German law does not require a conviction for deportation.

Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism amid the war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024 alone, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total recorded for the entire previous year, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).

The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.