49 pro-Palestinian protesters detained overnight during demonstration at Utrecht University released
Pro Palestinian demonstrations were staged Tuesday at several universities in the Netherlands as students and activists demanded an end to academic cooperation with Israeli institutions.
Protesters occupied buildings and classrooms at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) as well as Utrecht, Radboud and Maastricht universities, calling on Dutch institutions to sever ties with Israeli academic bodies.
At VU Amsterdam, a group of students and faculty members operating under the name "VU Palestine Coalition" launched a protest in one of the campus lecture halls and organized a day-long alternative educational program to highlight the situation in Gaza.
Banners saying "Silence is complicity" and "VU must be transparent about cooperation with Israeli institutions" were hung across the campus and lecture hall, while slogans such as "We can't carry on as if nothing is happening" and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" were written on blackboards.
The protest, held under the slogan "We can't carry on as if nothing is happening during a genocide," featured displays of Palestinian art inside the hall.
Participating academics delivered talks on human rights, the so-called "scholasticide" in Gaza, and the role of academic boycotts.
Stijn, an undergraduate student at VU who declined to give his last name, told Anadolu: "We are a coalition of students and academics. We are not an officially recognized organization by the university."
He said the coalition is urging the university to end its academic partnerships with Israeli institutions but added that "so far, the university administration has rejected our demands."
- 49 protesters detained in Utrecht
At Utrecht University, 49 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were detained Monday evening after refusing to vacate a university building.
According to a statement from Dutch police, the protesters had been demonstrating peacefully for the past two weeks in the inner courtyard of the university library.
However, on Monday afternoon, they entered and occupied a university building where demonstrations were not permitted.
The statement said police intervened after the protesters refused to leave, transporting the 49 detained individuals to another location in Utrecht by bus.
All were later released.
Radboud University announced that some career events scheduled in campus buildings had been canceled due to ongoing protest camps.
In Maastricht, pro-Palestinian students blocked the entrance of the university's Faculty of Law early Tuesday but ended their protest around noon.
