Police end demonstration of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on UvA campus

NOS News•yesterday, 11:31 PM•Amended today, 10:51

The police in Amsterdam have ended a demonstration by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the campus of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). 140 people were arrested, four of whom are still in custody.

The police, the Public Prosecution Service and the municipality decided to clear the protest camp last night because, according to them, there was a breach of the peace. The university asked the demonstrators to leave several times last night, but not everyone wanted to comply. The mobile unit was on site by 3 a.m. Around 4:30 a.m. the demonstration was largely over and people were led to buses.

Photos of the situation early this morning:

Police spokesperson Olav Brink speaks in NOS Radio 1 News of an “eviction with heavy artillery”. “We deployed a shovel because enormous barricades had been set up. We were therefore unable to reach this group of people and they did not listen to claims that had previously been made by the UvA to leave the area and later on several times by us.”

“We then went there and used violence, but violence was also used against us. Bricks and fireworks were thrown at us. One colleague suffered hearing damage. We are very sorry that that happened.”

Brink says that various interests were weighed before the decision was made to clear the area. “The Public Prosecution Service then decided that the police had to evacuate the site.”

After the police called, most demonstrators left. “But once we were present on the site, there was another group of 125 people and they were arrested. They were transported to a cell complex and their identity was determined. They were then told what they were suspected of, and at a later date At that moment the public prosecutor decides whether and how they will be punished.”

Here’s how it went last night:

The pro-Palestinian UvA protest camp is dismantled with a large police force

The police reported halfway through the night that there was unrest during the evacuation on Roeterseiland, where the tents were located. Police say demonstrators have used violence.

A live stream from local channel AT5 showed fireworks being thrown. Demonstrators also tried to stop a shovel from the mobile unit, which was removing barricades on the site.

The demonstration started yesterday afternoon when demonstrators set up tents on campus. They demanded, among other things, that Amsterdam universities sever their ties with Israel. Two bridges and the entrance to the campus at the Nieuwe Prinsengracht were blocked with pallets and other items.

The police wrote in a statement that the protest led to an unsafe situation, “partly due to the barricades that prevented emergency services from entering the site. In the event of an emergency, the activists themselves could possibly become stuck on the site.”

The atmosphere changed around 8:30 PM. About ten men sought confrontation with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. They beat demonstrators and threw torches and fireworks. According to the ANP news agency, the group of men was chased off the site by the demonstrators. According to the police, “en masse” of stones have also been removed from the ground.

Watch how the protests developed throughout the day here:

Pro-Palestinian protest at the campus of the University of Amsterdam

Yesterday afternoon, the UvA announced that it would press charges against the demonstrators if they actually spent the night on the site. A NOS reporter on the scene estimated that there were still hundreds of demonstrators on campus around 11 p.m. Some of them planned to spend the night there.

There have also been pro-Palestinian demonstrations at universities in the United States in recent weeks. Police arrested nearly 300 people during the eviction of Columbia University in New York.

Fighting broke out at UCLA in Los Angeles last Tuesday after pro-Israel counter-protesters tried to pull down barricades erected by pro-Palestinian students.