The police started clearing the occupied university building on Drift in Utrecht around 1 a.m. Chairman of the university’s Executive Board, Anton Pijpers, had twice asked the pro-Palestinian demonstrators to leave. That didn’t happen. A few hundred demonstrators could also be found on the streets around 1:30 am. The Mobile Unit had to carry out several charges.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators had one early in the evening on Wednesday occupied the university building on the Drift in Utrecht. A banner hangs on the balcony of the building, Drift 25, with the text: “It’s time UU, boycott Israeli apartheid”. Doors inside the building were barricaded.
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The chairman of the Executive Board of Utrecht University, Anton Pijpers, entered into discussions with the demonstrators around 9:45 p.m. It was, among other things, about the demands of the demonstrators. And no agreement was reached. Pijpers then asked the demonstrators twice to leave.
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The demonstrators did not leave the building, after which the police started the evacuation around 1 a.m. This happened through the back of the building where they had to dismantle the barricades. The people inside were then arrested and removed from the site by city buses. A demonstrator who was present inside the building suffered facial injuries, he said that the police took strong action during the evacuation.
It remained restless outside the university building. Several arrests were made and charges were carried out.
