Pro-Palestinian student protests continue in Europe, with occupations and blockades of university premises mainly in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
In Paris, the police intervened again yesterday Tuesday in front of the School of Political Sciences (Science Po) in Paris to break up pro-Palestinian gatherings.
At the same time, in the evening, the forces of order removed students who were occupying an auditorium of the Sorbonne University as a sign of “solidarity” with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and “against the repression of pro-Palestinian student movements”.
In the Netherlands, pro-Palestinian protesters staged an overnight occupation of the grounds of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), local media reported, a day after students and police clashed in the Dutch capital.
In a statement, the police pointed out that the UvA administration did not ask them to intervene to stop the protest, unlike on Monday night when they violently broke up an encampment at the university.
In a statement, university authorities said they wanted to find a solution with the students, who have been protesting since Monday, adding that “significant damage has been caused” to its buildings.
At Utrecht University, about 40 kilometers south of Amsterdam, police broke up a pro-Palestinian demonstration taking place in the university library.
In Germany, pro-Palestinian student mobilizations are currently smaller in scale and are mainly concentrated in Berlin and Cologne.
Yesterday Tuesday morning around 60 to 80 people set up camp on the grounds of the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin) before being removed by the police.
“Free Palestine”
In Austria, dozens of students set up tents on the grounds of the University of Vienna yesterday with banners reading “the resistance is international” and “Israel kills, the EU participates”.
In Switzerland, the pro-Palestinian student movement has spread, occupying university spaces in Lausanne, Zurich and Geneva.
Yesterday a group of pro-Palestinian students at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) announced that they had decided to “carry out a peaceful occupation” of the university’s reception hall.
Students call for an “academic boycott” of Israeli universities. Also the declaration of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the restoration of funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the end of “occupation and apartheid”, as they state in their statement.
At the Zurich University of Technology, a sit-in protest was held yesterday with the participation of dozens of students in the reception hall of the EPFZ.
Demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Free Palestine” and placed banners reading “no technology for genocide” on the ground before being cleared away by police.
In Geneva, the pro-Palestinian union of university students (CEP-UnigGE) closed a reception hall with tables, chairs and armchairs yesterday afternoon.
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