Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 19
Police yesterday broke up pro-Palestinian demonstrations at universities in Amsterdam and Berlin, which were inspired by similar demonstrations on campuses around the world.
At the University of Amsterdam, images on public broadcaster NOS showed police baton-charging protesters and smashing up tents at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT), after they refused to leave the campus. “The demonstration took on a violent nature because later in the evening massive stones were removed from the ground,” police said in a statement.
Police also cleared a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Berlin’s Freie Universitaet, after up to 80 people set up a protest camp in a courtyard of the campus early yesterday.
The protesters, some of whom wore the keffiyeh scarf that has long been a symbol of the Palestinian cause, sat in front of tents and waved banners.
They later tried to enter rooms and lecture halls and occupy them, according to the university, which said it then called in the police to clear the protest.
Videos on social media showed some protesters being carried away by officers.
Meanwhile, a Monday deadline for pro-Palestinian protesters to leave an encampment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in US cleared many demonstrators only to have the site retaken. At the Rhode Island School of Design, another group of protesters began occupying a building in the ongoing protest movement connected to the Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Source: AFP
