The victim, Lahav Shapira, 30, was hospitalized and underwent surgery for non-life-threatening injuries to his face. He is the grandson of Israeli athletics coach Amitzur Shapira, who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the Munich Olympics terror attack in 1972.

His older brother, Shahak Shapira, is a prominent comedian and writer who has lampooned Germany’s relationship to the Holocaust. The brothers moved from Israel to Germany with their mother as children, and Shahak himself entered public consciousness in 2015 after several Arab men beat him on a Berlin train because he had objected to their singing anti-Israel and antisemitic chants. 

Police told German media that the incident at the bar began with a dispute between the two Free University in Berlin students.

“During the argument, the younger man is said to have suddenly hit the older man [Shapira] in the face several times, causing him to fall,” the statement said. “The perpetrator is then said to have kicked the man who was lying on the ground.” Multiple reports said the two had argued about the Israel-Hamas war. 

The family’s account is different. Shahak Shapira tweeted, “There was no political debate whatsoever. He was recognized by the attacker in the bar, who followed him and his companion, spoke to them aggressively and then punched him in the face unannounced.”

Shapira’s mother, Tzipi Lev, who also lives in Germany, told Israeli media her son had been “sitting in a bar with his girlfriend. She felt like someone was constantly looking at her, and then Lahav told her that it was someone he knew from university.” She described the attacker as an Arab student.

According to Lev, the younger student “suddenly started attacking Lahav in a very harsh manner. He shouted at him: ‘Why are you posting pictures of kidnapped people?’ He was full of hate.”

Source - JTA/X - Image - Reuters