2024 University of Amsterdam pro-Palestinian campus occupation | |
---|---|
Part of 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses in the Netherlands and Israel–Hamas war protests | |
Date | May 6, 2024 – present (3 months and 27 days) |
Location | University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands. |
Methods | |
Casualties | |
Injuries | 9+ [lower-alpha 1] |
Arrested | 210+ [lower-alpha 2] |
Damage | at least €1.5 million [lower-alpha 3] |
On May 6, 2024 University of Amsterdam (UvA) students established a pro-Palestinian protest occupation on the Roeterseiland campus to support Palestinians in Gaza and demand action from administrators. [6] [11] This became the first in a series of pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses throughout the Netherlands. On May 7, 169 people were detained when the police used a bulldozer to break down the barricades after the protesters refused to leave. [6]
In response to the protests, UvA published a list of cooperations with Israeli institutions and universities. [12] [13] The university estimated 1.5 million euros in damages after the first week of protests. [10]
On May 6, 2024 University of Amsterdam (UvA) students gathered to protest at Roeterseiland campus, demanding the university to disclose and cut off its ties with Israeli institutes and corporations. [6] An encampment was erected on the lawn of the campus thereafter, encircled by barricades made of bricks, planks and ropes. [32] Later that night, a group of people in support of Israel sought out a confrontation with demonstrators at the encampment, throwing flares and fireworks at them. They were soon driven away by the demonstrators, while the police did not attempt to intervene. [33] [34] The demonstration went quiet as the night deepened. Most protestors at the encampment rested in tents. [32]
After midnight on May 7, riot police and police dogs were mobilized to raid and evict the encampment. Bulldozers were implemented to demolish the barricades, and some demonstrators tried to fight back. [34] Physical conflicts between protestors and the police took place, followed by the arrest of 169 people, [35] including a member of the Provincial Council of Gelderland. [36] At least one protester suffered head injuries, [2] while a police officer got injured as well. [3] Most people left the scene by 4:30 am. [37] Around 4 pm, over a thousand people gathered at Roeterseiland campus of University of Amsterdam, condemning the reaction from the university to call on the police for the eviction of the encampment. [38]
Later on, the protesting people marched along Weesperstraat and ended up at Oudemanhuispoort campus of University of Amsterdam. The demonstrators soon took over the buildings and set another encampment inside. Paving bricks, bicycle racks, desks, planks and other objects were removed by demonstrators to establish barricades, which blocked all essential paths to the encampment. A number of supporters stayed outside the barricades and echoed the chanting from demonstrators settling in the encampment. The encampment lasted throughout the night without interference from the police. [32]
The executive board of University of Amsterdam said in a statement on 8 May that a discussion between the executive board and protestors was held in the same morning, and another conversation was scheduled later in the afternoon. [39] Soon after, riot police broke into the encampment in the afternoon as barricades were demolished by bulldozers. Protestors inside the encampments were cornered and later on removed by the police. It was also reported by witnesses that some people got attacked by the police for now reason. [32]
With the eviction, a number of demonstrators moved to Rokin, in the vicinity of Oudemanhuispoort campus, and blocked Damrak, a main street in the city center of Amsterdam. [40] The demonstration at Rokin continued for hours, and was ended as the police charged towards the protesting crowds. Some crowds were dispersed as being chased by police vans, batons and police dogs. A number of them ended up at Rembrandtplein, where the demonstration slowly subsided. [41] 36 people were arrested by the end of the night, while at least five police officers and at least two protesters were injured, [4] [5] though the specific number of injured protesters is unknown. [42]
On May 9, another protest was organised that again started at the Roeterseiland university campus of University of Amsterdam. Thousands of protestors went on to march through the city. [43] Three protestors were arrested by the police. [7] The university closed most of its buildings for the rest of the week. [44] [45]
On May 13, after a national walk-out which was attended by approximately one thousand students and staff members, [46] students occupied campus buildings at the University of Amsterdam. Police in riot gear subsequently ended the protests in Amsterdam after "chasing away hundreds" of people, [47] [48] and the university closed for two days after the renewed occupations on campus. [49] The Amsterdam protest continued at Oosterpark. [50] The UvA filed complaints against several protesters. [51] One protester was arrested; a criminal investigation was ongoing to determine if more arrests would follow. [8]
A pro-Palestine protest march was planned to pass UvA campus buildings on May 15. However, as an event by Booking.com was announced for this day, organisers decided to move the protest to the Booking.com headquarters. [52] Although there were no demonstrations the next day, the entrance at the Roeterseiland campus was defaced with red paint. This also happened during the earlier demonstrations. [53]
On May 17, a group of protesters gathered at a UvA building to set up a new tent encampment there, [54] which lasted about an hour and was ended after police in riot gear made their presence. [55] The group of student protesters joined a different protest elsewhere in the city, with who they marched to the Stopera, where they held a sit-in. [56] This demonstration was ended by police in riot gear as well, resulting in at least one arrest. [9]
On May 25, about a hundred people held a peaceful demonstration at a UvA building at the Spui. Protesters spoke out against, among other things, Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema and the American support for Israel. They went on to march through the Rokin, Rembrandtplein, the Utrechtsestraat and ended at Achter Oosteinde , where a squatted building was declared the "University of Gaza", and named after Shadia Abu Ghazaleh. [57]
A pro-Palestinian protest was held by UvA staff members on May 28. [58]
The Diag is a large open space in the middle of the University of Michigan's Central Campus. Originally known as the Diagonal Green, the Diag derives its name from the many sidewalks running near or through it in diagonal directions. Many of the University's most frequented buildings are situated around the Diag, including West Hall, Randall Lab, the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, the Hatcher Graduate Library, and Angell, Mason, Haven, and Tisch Halls, among others.
The Bungehuis and Maagdenhuis occupations were a protest occupation movement at first the Bungehuis Building of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) by a group of students and a staff-member, referring to themselves as The New University, and then the Maagdenhuis Building of the UvA, its administrative center. The Bungehuis occupation lasted 11 days, from February 13 to February 24, 2015, and the Maagdenhuis occupation (2015) began on the evening of February 25 and lasted until April 11.
The 2021 Dutch curfew riots were a series of riots in the Netherlands that initiated as protests against the government's COVID-19 prevention measures and specifically the 21:00–4:30 curfew that was introduced on 23 January 2021. The police have described the riots as the worst in the country since the 1980 coronation riots.
Together for the Netherlands is a right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands.
Protests, including rallies, demonstrations, campaigns, and vigils, relating to the Israel–Hamas war have occurred nationwide across the United States since the conflict's start on October 7, 2023, occurring as part of a broader phenomenon of the Israel–Hamas war protests around the world.
A series of occupation protests by pro-Palestinian students occurred at Columbia University in New York City from April to June 2024, in the context of the broader Israel–Hamas war related protests in the United States. The protests began on April 17, 2024, when pro-Palestinian students established an encampment of approximately 50 tents on the university campus, calling it the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, and demanded the university divest from Israel.
Pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses started in 2023 and escalated in April 2024, spreading in the United States and other countries, as part of wider Israel–Hamas war protests. The escalation began after mass arrests at the Columbia University campus occupation, led by anti-Zionist groups, in which protesters demanded the university's disinvestment from Israel over its alleged genocide of Palestinians. In the U.S. over 3,100 protesters have been arrested, including faculty members and professors, on over 60 campuses. On May 7, protests spread across Europe with mass arrests in the Netherlands. By May 12, twenty encampments had been established in the United Kingdom, and across universities in Australia and Canada. The protests largely ended as universities closed for the summer.
On April 25, 2024, a student protest began at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to protest the administration's investments in Israel. The occupation, self-titled as the 'Palestine Solidarity Encampment', was a part of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses campaigning for divestment from Israel. The encampment was attacked multiple times by counter protestors, leading to clashes. On May 2, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) raided and dismantled the encampment, arresting the protestors and ending the occupation.
On April 29, 2024, approximately 100 University of Oregon students established a camp on the Eugene campus to support Palestinians in Gaza and demanding action from administrators. As part of the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses, demonstrators requested for the university to divest from “the state of Israel, Israeli companies, and any weapons or surveillance manufacturing.”
In May 2024, pro-Palestinian student protesters at the University of Virginia demonstrated on the campus. The protesters organized an occupation on university grounds in support of Palestinian nationalism in the context of the Israel–Hamas war.
On April 24, 2024 an occupation protest began at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California. The protest was a part of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses campaigning for divestment from Israel. USC cancelled their main commencement ceremony over safety concerns about protests. The encampment was cleared by the Los Angeles Police Department on the morning of May 5.
The McGill University pro-Palestinian encampment was an occupation protest which took place on the downtown campus of McGill University, in Montreal, beginning 27 April 2024. It was the first notable Canadian demonstration in the 2024 movement of pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses, which call for universities to cut ties with Israel amid the country's assault on Gaza in the Israel–Hamas war. Like many of its predecessors, the protest at McGill took the form of an encampment, a group of tents occupied day and night by protesters.
The UC Davis pro-Palestinian campus occupation was established by the Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine as part of a nationwide campus activism movement advocating for Palestinian rights and calling for university divestment from Israeli investments due to the ongoing Israeli-led attacks on Gaza.
The pro-Palestinian campus occupations at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands were a series of occupation protests, as part of the broader protests against the Israel–Hamas war. On 13 May 2024 protesters created an encampment, similar to other campus protests in the Netherlands, the United States and other countries. On 20 May a second encampment was established next to the universities' administrative building. On 5 June after the occupation of another university building, police cleared the encampment. The protesters demanded that the university board divest from Israel over its alleged genocide of Palestinians and invasion of the Gaza Strip, and to support Palestinian students and universities. The protests included walkouts, daily marches, temporary occupations, as well as vandalism.
On May 6, 2024, pro-Palestinian protests broke out at the University of Amsterdam which quickly spread to other universities in the Randstad and the rest of the Netherlands. Although protests had been taking place as early as October 2023, which marks the start of the Israel–Hamas war, the protests intensified in May in the light of the Rafah offensive on May 6 and recent similar protests in the United States and elsewhere.
The pro-Palestinian campus occupations at the University of Oxford are ongoing occupation protests in Oxford, England, organised by Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P). The occupations started on 6 May 2024 on the Museum of Natural History's lawn, in front of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Escalating the protests, a second encampment was established on 19 May outside the Radcliffe Camera. Protests have taken elsewhere in the city, including on Wellington Square, where 17 students were arrested after occupying the Vice-Chancellor's office on 23 May. Protesters demands include disclosure of investments and divestment from Israeli companies, among others. The university refused to negotiate with protesters until responding to an email to arrange discussion on 5 June. The protests have been supported by over 500 members of staff, and criticised by the university as intimidating.
A series of protests at Ohio State University by pro-Palestinian demonstrators occurred on-campus in response to the Israel-Palestine conflict beginning on October 7, 2023. A solidarity encampment was constructed on OSU's South Oval on April 25, 2024, during which there were 36 arrests. About 40 protesters have been arrested across multiple non-violent protests, making for the largest en masse arrest on campus since the 1969–1970 Vietnam War protests.
In ieder geval één vrouw is bij de ontruiming gewond geraakt aan haar hoofd.[At least one woman suffered head injuries during the evacuation.]
Among the lead student groups in the coalition are the Columbia chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. The two decades-old anti-Zionism advocacy groups that protest Israel's military occupation have chapters across the country that have been key to protests on other campuses.
It's one of several schools around the country where professors are getting arrested at demonstrations, circulating letters in support of arrested protesters and holding no-confidence votes in their administrations.