It is Tuesday afternoon, half past six. Hundreds of demonstrators are walking on Weesperstraat with Palestinian flags and protest signs. They chant slogans like ‘Free, free Palestine’ and ‘UvA, UvA, you can’t hide, stop supporting genocide’. Then someone uses a new slogan: ‘Black lives matter’ resounds resoundingly through the street.
The procession comes from the Roeterseiland campus – where the police brutally ended the tent camp protest a day earlier – and marches towards the Oudemanhuispoort and the former Amsterdam Academic Club, which will be occupied a little later.
The students want the university to ‘speak out against the genocide in Gaza’ and cut its ties with Israeli institutions. What is striking is that attention is also drawn to other themes: racism, for example, but also climate, migration and the rights of indigenous peoples.
“Students place the genocide in Gaza in a long tradition of protest against human rights violations, oppression, ongoing occupation and apartheid,” says associate professor of anthropology Anne de Jong (UvA). “It is not about a conflict between two parties, but about a fight for human rights.”
Protest against Vietnam
The large-scale student demonstrations are reminiscent of the protests against the Vietnam War in the 1970s, when universities in the United States became the beating heart of the counter-movement. In the 1980s, New York students occupied part of Columbia University to push for an end to investments in companies that did business under apartheid South Africa.
“The call for a free Palestine is included in this list,” says De Jong. “Students believe that human rights violations against Palestinians are not far removed from us: they exist because in this case the UvA collaborates with Israeli universities and because the economic and political ties are close.”
Erella Grassiani, associate professor of anthropology (UvA) and director of the Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies, agrees. At Tuesday’s demonstration, she heard students draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality and migrant hatred. The plight of Palestinians is the result of global structures of prejudice and oppression, the students say.
Grassiani: “Everything goes back to a broader idea that equality is not possible in our neoliberal system. The rich are getting richer, at the expense of others, and there is great inequality in terms of class and racism.”
Decolonization
The Palestinian flag has therefore become a symbol for more than just the Palestinian cause. De Jong: “Many students see the occupation of the Palestinian territories as a decolonization that has yet to take place.”
More slogans were heard at the UvA this week than just ‘Free Palestine‘. The demonstrators chanted ‘justice’ and frequently shouted ‘More or less the world of police‘ to the ME. Meaning: Everyone hates the police – a slogan used in France against police brutality. Members of action groups such as Mokum Kraakt and Extinction Rebellion were also present at the protest on Tuesday.
During the occupation of the Oudemanhuispoort on Tuesday evening, just after the police had announced that they would not intervene that night, a passerby got into an argument with a demonstrator. “There is more to the world,” he said heatedly. “Are you also going to stand here for the war in Sudan?” The demonstrator bit back: “I also stand here for Sudan!”
Grassiani: “You often hear the motto: no one is free until we are all free. By demonstrating for a free Palestine, they want to show solidarity with the global struggle for equality and against oppression.”
Knowledge and time
Amsterdam students have been demonstrating since October 7. They believe it is unjustified that the UvA directly spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but not against the war in Gaza. Several sit-ins were organized. At the end of April, students from Amsterdam University College blocked access to the academic building.
The fact that students are often at the forefront of protest movements is because they have ‘knowledge and time’, says De Jong. “You can only go to school if you are not bombed or have to do child labor. Students have time to think, read, think critically. They see it as their duty to make their voices heard, especially from the safety of the Netherlands.”
Students are young and idealistic, Grassiani also says, but that does not mean that everyone participating in the protests views them the same way. “The fact that there is more attention for Palestine than for other conflicts also has to do with its visibility in the media and politics.” This was of course also the case with the war in Ukraine, although all ties with Russian universities were severed after the invasion of that country.
She thinks the current situation has caused a “paradigm shift” for students. “Every generation experiences something that influences how it views the world. For these students that is Gaza.”
Worldwide protest
Student protests against the war in Gaza and for a free Palestine are currently taking place on university campuses around the world. The wave of protests started in the United States. Demonstrations there swelled after Congress approved additional billions in aid to Israel last month.
Since then, students at about forty American universities have been protesting with tent camps for a ceasefire. They often want their universities’ collaborations with Israeli companies and institutions to end.
Inspired by the protests in the US, which were often ended harshly, similar manifestations are being organized by European students. In addition to the protests in Amsterdam and Utrecht, there have also been university occupations in Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Students at Trinity College in Dublin ended the occupation of their university complex on Thursday after five days. The university management there acceded to their demands and stopped investing in Israeli companies that ‘have activities in the occupied Palestinian territories’.
About the author: Madelief van Dongen is a news reporter for Het Parool. She writes about all kinds of Amsterdam topics, from tourist policy to squatted buildings, and reports live on events in the city.
Tags: Students protest Palestinian conflict parties fight human rights
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