During early hours of Tuesday, May 7, Dutch Police bulldozed barricades and detained around 125 people in Amsterdam University from a pro-Palestinian camp. The action was accompanied with some violent clashes between the authorities and the protesters. The police action followed after requests from the University of Amsterdam and the Mayor of the city for the protesters to leave the campus were ignored. The protesters were demanding that the University severe all its ties with Israel.
However, later, all but four demonstrators were released. The four were being kept longer on charges of public violence and insulting an officer. According to a police spokesperson, one police officer suffered hearing damage and it is still unclear how many other people may have been injured.
Protests in Universities in support of Palestine and against Israel have become common place in USA during the past few weeks, but now they are taking place in Europe as well.
On same day as Amsterdam University protests, German police broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard at Berlin’s Free University. The protesters had reportedly put up about 20 tents, covered their faces with medical masks, and draped kufiyah scarves around their heads, shouting slogans such as “Viva, viva Palestina.”
Netherlands and Germany aren’t the only European countries battling these pro-Palestine protests. Last week, police in Paris entered France’s prestigious Sciences Po University and removed protesters who had occupied its buildings.