Thousands of Students and Teachers Demonstrate at UvA: Latest News

In Amsterdam, a group of demonstrators again entered the UvA building on Roeterseiland. According to NOS reporters on the scene, a group of people in black clothes and masks took the crowd inside. Several hundred followed, sometimes with sleeping bags, but a good portion of the crowd walked out fifteen minutes later.

It is not clear how many demonstrators are now in the building on the Roeterseiland campus. Some of it went further into the building. Several dozen students are still showing up in the auditorium.

The group of people in black clothes called on the students not to leave the protest, but it seems that a large part does not respond.

The action came after UvA staff and students walked out. At 11am, dozens or sometimes hundreds of staff and students walked out at various universities in the Netherlands in protest against the war in Gaza and the outbreak of student protests last week.

The official program after the walk out with various speakers was over after two hours. The students continued the action, chanting slogans such as “1234 occupation no more, 5678 Israel a terrorist state.”

A large group also stayed outside the campus building in Amsterdam. They are trying to get them to come inside. “It’s a weekday, it’s your university, so there’s no risk. ” But one group is still standing.

Here are pictures of the protest in Amsterdam:

Apart from Amsterdam, protests are also taking place in Maastricht, Eindhoven, Leiden, Utrecht and Groningen. Dozens of students have set up tents on the Koeveld at the Eindhoven University of Technology. According to broadcaster L1, around 200 students are showing up in Maastricht. The action goes on quietly.

According to the regional channel, people are on the square outside the Harmonie building in Groningen and beyond RTV North about 150 to 200 activists. The Palestinian flag was replaced by the RUG flag at the building. Just before the protest started, the gates of the university were closed.

The demonstrators want the RUG to distance itself from companies that support Israel, such as Siemens and Thales. The latter party would provide financial support to several investigative agencies. Tent camps are also being built in Maastricht and Eindhoven.

In Amsterdam last week, demonstrators set up a tent camp with barricades, residential buildings and destroyed them. The police used shovels to move the barricades aside. Dozens of people were arrested. The UvA estimates the damage after the protests at one and a half million euros.

Activists also lived in university buildings in Utrecht. The demonstrators were taken away on buses during the night from Wednesday to Thursday.

On Wednesday, the grounds of the Binnengasthuis in Amsterdam were taken over by the police cleared after the UVA submitted a report. In a council discussion on Friday, Mayor Halsema said some of the demonstrators had sought violent confrontations with the police.

The organization of today’s protest, Dutch Scholars for Palestine, say he said in a statement that he was surprised by the actions of the boards of directors of the University of Amsterdam and the University of Utrecht during demonstrations last week and spoke again of “extreme police violence”.

As a result of the protests, the university kept all buildings in the city center closed on Ascension weekend. University buildings in Amsterdam were also closed until this morning.