Police broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard at the Free University of Berlin. This is the latest action by authorities to roil campuses across Europe in the United States.
Tuesday’s move came after activists set up about 20 tents and formed a human chain around them to protest Israel’s war on Gaza.
Most had their faces covered with medical masks and keffiyah scarves wrapped around their heads, chanting slogans such as “Viva, viva Palestina.” The police asked the students to leave the university campus in the German capital.
Police officers were also seen carrying away some students and scuffles broke out between police officers and demonstrators. Authorities used pepper spray against some demonstrators.
“People’s demands were pretty clear and essentially said that it is time for Germany to join the protest movement around the world,” Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane said.
“They are demanding that the genocide they say is taking place in Gaza be stopped. They also say that students who participate in these protests should not be banned from doing so and that they should not lose their status as students – this is something that many students who have participated in protests are afraid of.” said Kane, reporting the scene.
The school administration said in a statement that the demonstrators refused any dialogue and therefore called the police to clear the campus.
“This form of protest is not aimed at dialogue. “An occupation on the FU Berlin campus is not acceptable,” said university president Günter Ziegler. FU is the abbreviation for Free University. “We are available for scientific dialogue – but not in this way.”
Administrators said some protesters attempted to enter and occupy rooms and lecture halls at the Free University.
The camp in Amsterdam is dissolved
Earlier on Tuesday, police arrested about 140 activists as they broke up a similar pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam police said on social media that their action was “necessary to restore order” after protests turned violent. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Video from the scene broadcast by national broadcaster NOS shows police using a mechanical excavator to break down barricades and officers with batons and shields advancing, beating some of the protesters and tearing down tents. NOS reported that protesters formed barricades using wooden pallets and bicycles.
After protests in Amsterdam were cleared early on Tuesday, police cordoned off the area with metal fences. The students sat on the bank of a nearby canal.
“The war between Israel and Hamas has had a significant impact on individual students and staff,” the school said in a statement. “We share the anger and confusion about the war and we understand that there are protests against it. “We emphasize that dialogue about this within the university is the only answer,” it said.
Somewhere else?
Other camps have sprung up in Finland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom in recent days, apparently inspired by a wave of protests on U.S. campuses.
In Finland, dozens of protesters from the solidarity group Students for Palestine set up a camp outside the main building of the University of Helsinki and said they would stay there until the university, Finland’s largest academic institution, cuts academic ties with Israeli universities.
In Denmark, students at the University of Copenhagen set up a pro-Palestinian camp and set up about 45 tents outside the Faculty of Social Sciences campus. The university said students could protest but urged them to respect rules on campus grounds. “Seek dialogue, not conflict, and make room for perspectives other than your own,” the administrators said on X.
On their Facebook page, members of the activist group Students Against the Occupation said their attempts to talk to the administration over the past two years about withdrawing school investments from companies were linked to activity in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory areas fail in vain.
“We can no longer settle for cautious dialogue that does not lead to concrete action,” the group said.
In Italy, students at the University of Bologna, one of the world’s oldest universities, set up a camp over the weekend to demand an end to the war in Gaza, while Israel prepared an offensive in Rafah despite appeals from its Western allies against it. Groups of students organized similar protests in Rome and Naples, which were largely peaceful.
In Spain, dozens of students spent more than a week in a pro-Palestinian camp on the University of Valencia campus. Similar camps were set up on Monday at the University of Barcelona and the University of the Basque Country. A group representing students at Madrid’s public universities announced that they would intensify protests against the war in the coming days.
On Friday, French police peacefully evicted dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute for Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, after they gathered in support of Palestinians.
On Tuesday, students at the prestigious institution, whose alumni include French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and President Emmanuel Macron, were allowed to freely enter campus to take exams while police stood at the entrances.
Last week there were protests at several other universities in France, including Lille and Lyon. Macron’s office said police had been asked to expel students from 23 locations on French campuses.