A schoolgirl’s cellphone shot in the courtyard of Berlin’s Ernst-Abbe High School on Monday morning, two days after the deadly Hamas attacks in Israel, shows a crowd of students in a frenzy. They gather around a 14-year-old student, who holds up the Palestinian flag. The 61-year-old school teacher moves towards him and tries to take it from him.

The download is unstable. When he refocuses on the incident, the professor is face to face with another 15-year-old student. The teacher raises his hand and slaps him. He is startled for a moment, raises his leg and kicks the professor who falls to the ground.

Fears that the conflict will reach Berlin

A few hours later the student’s kick will be published in almost all media in the German capital. After a small group of people cheered the Hamas attack on the streets of Neukölln on Saturday night, the school fight is fueling concern that hatred and rivalry over the war on Israel and the Gaza Strip could spill over into the streets. and the schoolyards of the area, where immigrants from the Middle East and Turkey traditionally live.

Neukölln’s Social Democrat mayor Martin Hickel said on Tuesday that he is noticing that the conflict in the Middle East is also playing out in individual schools in his area. Conflicts related to Israel and Palestine are not a new problem in schools. But the fight at the Ernst-Abbe high school was a particularly violent episode, adds Martin Klesmann, a spokesman for the Berlin Ministry of Education.

Students cheer for Hamas

“The conflicts are not always that violent, but many teachers report similar incidents,” Desiree Gallert, head of an initiative against anti-Semitism in schools, told the public network rbb. Not only in Neukölln, but all over Berlin: students cheering for the Islamist Hamas, making anti-Semitic comments while there were heated arguments and fights.

“One reason for this is that students are not taught anything about the Holocaust until the sixth grade,” Ferat Kocak, a member of the Die Linke (The Left) party in Berlin’s local parliament, tells DW. “By then they have already formed an opinion that comes from their parents or their environment.”

Kotsak, who was the first to publish the video of the fight on X (formerly twitter), considers that the police announcement, which was based on the complaint reports of the two opposing sides, adds fuel to the fire. It reports that “the 15-year-old allegedly attacked the teacher with spoons” before being slapped.

Who hit who?

But did the student hit the teacher or the teacher hit the student first? The video shows the teacher hitting the student and the student then kicking the teacher. What happened before that is not seen. Police are still investigating the incident.

But by the time it is investigated, public opinion has already formed its opinion: Violent students of Arab origin are bringing the war on Israel to the schools of Berlin’s number one problem area. Social media commentators and newspaper headlines seem to agree on this.

“And this, while the police didn’t even ask the students but relied on the teacher’s testimony,” the Kurdish MP tells DW. Kotsak claims that he spoke to the students present, who assured him that “there was no prank” and that the teacher slapped him.

“Furthermore, I do not understand why the display of the Palestinian flag is prohibited. Does the flag mean support for Hamas? Obviously not. But with this behavior we are literally pushing the young people to Hamas.”

Berlin’s Ministry of Education declined to comment on the accusations against the teacher. “We are waiting for the police investigation. In order to bring disciplinary action against the professor, we must have the evidence.” The school supervision and the school management are in contact with those involved, the spokesman Klesman told DW. “But one thing is clear: teachers should not be aggressive or even violent towards students.”