Protests by students demanding universities sever ties with Israel over the Gaza war spread across western Europe on Tuesday, sparking clashes and dozens of fresh arrests.
Students at various European universities, inspired by ongoing demonstrations at US campuses, have been occupying halls and facilities, demanding an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel’s punishing assault on Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian protesters were occupying a University of Amsterdam (UvA) site on Wednesday, a day after police clashed with protesters in the Dutch capital and broke up an earlier encampment at the university.
Police said the UvA had not asked them to stop the protest, contrary to early on Tuesday when riot police used a bulldozer to knock down barricades at UvA and detained 169 people at a different campus.
UvA said in a statement just after midnight that it would like to find a solution with the students who have been protesting since Monday, adding that it has “caused considerable damage” to its buildings.
The university will keep several locations closed on Wednesday due to the blockades. Students have protested against academic ties with Israel and condemned the university’s response. UvA has accused some protesters of intimidating behaviour, and video captured violent clashes between pro- and anti-Palestinian protesters.
At the University of Utrecht, some 40km south of Amsterdam, local police ended a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the University library, the police said in a statement.
Protests in Germany
In the eastern German city of Leipzig, the university said in a statement that 50 to 60 people occupied a lecture hall on Tuesday, waving banners that read: “University occupation against genocide.”
Protesters barricaded the lecture hall doors from the inside and erected tents in the courtyard, according to the university.
The institution called in the police in the afternoon, and filed a criminal complaint.
A pro-Israeli counter-protest also took place in the area, involving about 40 people, police said.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against 13 people who were in the lecture hall on suspicion of trespassing. No arrests have been made so far.
Earlier, at Berlin’s Free University, police cleared a demonstration after up to 80 people erected a protest camp in a courtyard of the campus.
The protesters, some of whom wore the keffiyeh scarf that has long been a symbol of the Palestinian cause, sat in front of tents and waved banners.
They later tried to enter rooms and lecture halls and occupy them, according to the university, which said it then called in police to clear the protest.
The university said property was damaged while classes in some buildings were suspended for the day.
Berlin police said they made some arrests for incitement to hatred and trespassing.
France, Switzerland, Austria
French police detained 86 people following an operation to remove students staging a pro-Palestinian occupation at the Sorbonne university in Paris, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Those arrested in the police operation on Tuesday night were being held for a variety of public order offences, said the statement.
They include wilful damage, rebellion, violence against a person holding public authority, intrusion into an education establishment and holding a meeting designed to disrupt order. Some are also being held for participation in a group with a view to preparing violence or damage to property.
Police acted after about 100 students had been occupying a lecture theatre for two hours in "solidarity" with the people of Gaza, an AFP journalist on site noted.
Tuesday night's police operation at the Sorbonne -- and at another university on Paris's Left Bank, Science Po university -- followed interventions to end similar protests at the end of April.
In Switzerland, protests spread to three universities in Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich.
The University of Lausanne said in a statement it “considers that there is no reason to cease these relations” with Israeli universities as protesters demand.
In Austria, dozens of protesters have been camped on the campus of Vienna University, pitching tents and stringing up banners since late Thursday.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.