Encouraged by the protests in the US, students in many prestigious universities in Europe have also organized demonstrations against the war in the Gaza Strip and asked the schools to cut ties with Israel.
Israel launched a war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the terrorists carried out a massacre in Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
At the University of Amsterdam, the police this morning dispersed protestors who had refused to leave and demolished their tents. Also at the Free University of Berlin, the police set up a protest camp in the courtyard where up to 80 people had gathered today. The protesters first sat peacefully at their tents, but later they tried to enter the school building and lecture halls. The university management called the police, who dispersed the protesters.
The Free University of Berlin said property was damaged and classes in several buildings were canceled for the day. Police in Berlin said they had arrested several people for inciting hatred and crime.
In France, the police arrived twice today at the Institute of Political Science of Paris (“Sciences Po”) to disperse about 20 students who had barricaded themselves in the large hall of the university. The Paris prosecutor’s office said police intervened to ensure other students could take the exams and arrested two people. The university later announced that the exams went off without incident.
In the last few weeks, the police have come to Science Po several times, where activists want the school to reveal exactly what contracts it has with the Israeli authorities. About 13 students have gone on hunger strike, the school said.
Also in Switzerland yesterday and today there were protests in several universities. At the University of Lausanne, several hundred students occupied the hall on Thursday, demanding an end to the partnership with Israeli universities. The University of Lausanne said it saw no reason to end the relationship.
Protests were also held today at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, where a group of students occupied a university hall but dispersed in the afternoon, and at the University of Geneva, where students barricade themselves in the hall with chairs and tables around lunchtime. .
At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, dozens of students protested in the entrance hall, where they placed a poster reading “No technology for genocide” on the floor. The police then took them away.
Brief clashes broke out between pro-Palestinian supporters and pro-Israeli supporters in Amsterdam on Monday night. Demonstrators blocked several roads leading to the university, but police broke up the protest to allow emergency services access.
Several students pelted the police with stones and fire extinguishers when they tried to break up the demonstration. More than 120 people were arrested.
