It was supposed to be a protest camp modeled on New York’s Columbia University. Around 70 people gathered in front of Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) on Friday evening with the aim of sending a sign of solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza by Monday evening. After the meeting at this location – the symbolic Zwilling-Scholl-Platz directly in front of the entrance to the main building – was not approved and the police gathered forces, the meeting broke up after around three hours at around 8.30 p.m.
The police confirmed the incident was peaceful. No crimes or administrative offenses were identified. When asked, a university spokeswoman pointed out that the site was not the responsibility of the LMU, but belonged to the city of Munich. Nothing has changed in the statement that the LMU published a week earlier about a similar demonstration at the same location. The statement said: “The LMU continues to express its solidarity with its partner institutions in Israel and with Israeli and Jewish students and scientists and is clearly against any form of anti-Semitism as well as any discrimination.”
The demonstrators, who gathered under the slogan “The Invasion of Rafah”, had put forward several demands. The first: being allowed to demonstrate in front of the university at all. They also demand a statement from the LMU against the “genocide” that they believe Israel is committing, as well as – to quote it – “the release of all political prisoners”.
In addition, universities should be obliged to work exclusively with civil institutions. The Munich universities should create transparency where they cooperate with universities in Israel and the state’s military. All these initiatives should be stopped.
These goals were presented at the request of a camp spokesman who did not want to give his name. Folders were identified and specific instructions for action were distributed in advance to camp participants on the social media platform Instagram. The meeting was declared spontaneous. She wasn’t disorganized.
The regulatory authorities prohibited the meeting on the grounds that further events were planned until Monday evening, directly in front of the LMU. The alternative location offered at Karl-Stützel-Platz was rejected by the demonstrators. The alternative locations they discussed at Professor-Huber-Platz on the other side of Ludwigstrasse or in front of the Pinakotheks were not approved by the regulatory authorities. However, there was no escalation. The meeting broke up before police intervened.
Previously, chants had included: “Viva, viva, Palestine.” And: “LMU shame on you”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of “genocide” and labeled a “terrorist.” A speaker tried to encourage the crowd to shout after her: “Israel is… the real terrorist.” There was no distancing from the terrorist organization Hamas, nor was there any mention of the attack it carried out on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Two counter-demonstrators spontaneously arrived and – instructed by the police – unfurled Israel flags on the edge of the Zwilling-Scholl-Platz. Several employees of a private security service took up positions at the entrance to the LMU main building.
There has been a chair for Jewish history and culture at LMU since 1997; it was the first of its kind at a German university.
In mid-October 2023, in response to the Hamas attack, the city council’s Labor and Economic Committee decided that the Munich universities should expand exchanges with Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva. The city in the northern Negev Desert has been a twin city of Munich since 2021. There are around 30,000 students there.
Anne Hübner, the leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Munich city council, wrote on the news service stop.” Protests against Netanyahu are “legitimate”, but “camps against Israel and its right to exist are unbearable, especially in Munich”.