Pro-Palestine protesters occupied part of the University of Amsterdam tonight

Pro-Palestine protesters occupied part of the University of Amsterdam tonight. The night before, Dutch police dispersed a student protest at the university and detained dozens of people, but today they did not take action against the demonstrators, Reuters reported.

Police said in a statement that the University of Amsterdam had not asked them to stop the protest, unlike on Monday evening.

In a statement issued just after midnight, the university said it would like to reach a solution with the students who have been demonstrating since Monday. She added that the protest “caused considerable damage” to the school buildings. Due to the student blockade, several parts of the university will remain closed today.

At Utrecht University, located about 40 kilometers south of the Dutch capital Amsterdam, local police broke up a pro-Palestine demonstration in the university library, the university said in a statement.

Student protests against the Israeli army’s campaign in the Gaza Strip and against the ties of academic institutions to Israel began to spread first on universities in the United States. Then they also spread to Europe, where they have not yet reached such a scale. (ČTK)