German university drops Palestinian seminar amid criticism

BERLIN – A German university is ditching a seminar about young people in the Palestinian territories that faced accusations of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli content.

The University of Applied Sciences and Arts in the northern city of Hildesheim said Friday it is redesigning its teaching on the Middle East conflict and social work in the coming academic year. It will drop a seminar “on the social situation of young people in Palestine.”

Germany’s Central Council of Jews and others had criticized that course. The university has said the criticism centred on material heavily critical of Israel which “only serve as reading materials and are used to train students in critical discourse,” but did not reflect its political views.

University President Christiane Dienel said: “There is no place for anti-Semitism at our university.”