Hamburg schoolgirl burns note with Israel flag
Following the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on October 7, several anti-Israeli statements were made at schools in Hamburg. One pupil set fire to a piece of paper painted with an Israeli flag, the Senate announced in response to a question from CDU member of the Hamburg Parliament Birgit Stöver. Graffiti with the slogan "free Palestine" had also appeared. In four cases, there had been bomb threats in connection with the Middle East conflict. However, the police classified each of these as "non-threatening". For data protection reasons, the Senate did not disclose which schools reported the incidents to the school supervisory authority.
Between October 7 and November 13, the State Institute for Teacher Training and School Development (LI) received 17 requests for advice on how to deal with the situation in the Middle East in educational terms. In addition, around 200 teachers were informed and advised in various training courses, according to another Senate response to a minor question from FDP Member of Parliament Anna von Treuenfels-Frowein.
"The situation at Hamburg's schools is serious," said Stöver. Despite the tense situation, the red-green senate is doing too little to protect pupils from radical Islamic propaganda. "There is a hodgepodge of measures, but no bundled handout," criticized the education policy spokesperson for the CDU parliamentary group.
According to the answer to Stöver's question, only a few of the approximately 470 state and private schools in Hamburg apparently maintain relationships with schools in Israel. It is known that six grammar schools and one district school have participated in student exchanges in recent years.
The conflict in the Middle East has led to citizens expressing their beliefs, with a Hamburg schoolgirl burning a note bearing an Israeli flag and graffiti calling for "free Palestine" appearing at schools. The tense situation has sparked concerns about the protection of pupils from radical ideologies, with CDU education policy spokesperson Birgit Stöver criticizing the red-green senate for doing too little to prevent the spread of radical Islamic propaganda.
Source: www.dpa.com
