Police broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who occupied a courtyard at the Free University of Berlin, the latest action by authorities as protests that roiled campuses in the United States spread across Europe.
Tuesday’s move came after activists set up about 20 tents and formed a human chain around them to protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
Most covered their faces with medical masks and wrapped keffiyah scarves around their heads, shouting slogans such as “Long live, long live Palestine.” Police asked students to leave the university campus in the German capital.
Police could also be seen carrying some students and some fights broke out between police and protesters. Authorities used pepper spray against some of the protesters.
“The demands of the people were quite clear, basically saying that it was high time for Germany to participate in the protest movement around the world,” said Dominic Kane of Al Jazeera.
“They demand that the genocide they say is taking place in Gaza be stopped. They also say that students who participate in these protests should not be prohibited from doing so and should not lose their student status – this is something that many students who have participated in protests are afraid of,” said Kane, reporting from the scene.
School administrators said in a statement that the protesters rejected any type of dialogue and therefore called the police to evacuate the campus.
“This form of protest is not aimed at dialogue. An occupation is not acceptable on the FU Berlin campus,” said university president Guenter Ziegler. FU is the abbreviation for Free University. “We are available for academic dialogue – but not in this way.”
Administrators said some protesters tried to enter rooms and classrooms at Universidade Livre to occupy them.
Amsterdam camp dismantled
On Tuesday morning, police arrested around 140 activists as they dismantled a similar pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam police said on social media that their action was “necessary to restore order” after protests turned violent. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Video of the scene, broadcast by national broadcaster NOS, shows police using a mechanical excavator to tear down barricades and officers with batons and shields advancing, beating some of the protesters and tearing down tents. Protesters formed barricades with wooden pallets and bicycles, NOS reported.
After clearing the protest in Amsterdam early Tuesday afternoon, police closed off the area with metal fences. The students sat on the banks of a nearby canal.
“The war between Israel and Hamas is having a major impact on individual students and staff,” the school said in a statement. “We share the anger and bewilderment regarding the war and understand that there are protests because of it. We emphasize that within the university, dialogue on the subject is the only answer”, he stated.
Somewhere else?
Other camps have sprung up in recent days in Finland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom, apparently inspired by a wave of protests on U.S. campuses.
In Finland, dozens of protesters from the solidarity group Students for Palestine set up a camp in front of the main building of the University of Helsinki, saying they would remain there until the university, Finland’s largest academic institution, severed academic ties with Israeli universities. .
In Denmark, students set up a pro-Palestine camp at the University of Copenhagen, erecting around 45 tents outside the Faculty of Social Sciences campus. The university said students can protest but asked them to respect rules on campus. “Seek dialogue, not conflict, and make room for perspectives different from your own,” the administrators at X said.
On their Facebook page, members of the activist group Students Against the Occupation said their attempts to talk to the administration over the past two years about withdrawing the school’s investments from companies linked to activities in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories had been in vain. . they go.
“We can no longer be satisfied with cautious dialogue that does not lead to concrete action,” the group said.
In Italy, students from the University of Bologna, one of the oldest universities in the world, set up a camp over the weekend to demand an end to the war in Gaza, as Israel prepared an offensive on Rafah, despite calls from its Western allies against it. . . Student groups organized similar protests in Rome and Naples, which were largely peaceful.
In Spain, dozens of students spent more than a week in a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Valencia campus. Similar camps were set up on Monday at the University of Barcelona and the University of the Basque Country. A group representing students at public universities in Madrid announced that it would intensify protests against the war in the coming days.
On Friday, French police peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, after they had gathered in support of the Palestinians.
On Tuesday, students at the prestigious institution, which counts French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and President Emmanuel Macron among its alumni, were seen entering the campus unobstructed to take exams while police were at the entrances.
Protests took place last week at some other universities in France, including Lille and Lyon. Macron’s office said police were asked to remove students from 23 locations on French campuses.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
