Dutch police broke up a pro-Palestine demonstration in front of the University of Amsterdam early this morning. It detained 125 people during occasional violent clashes, authorities said, cited by Reuters.
In messages posted overnight on the X social network, police said they had to step in to stop the event and dismantle the tents the protesters had set up. Demonstrators on the spot resisted the police and used violence.
Local media published images of protesters shooting fireworks at police. However, the authorities do not provide information on the injured on either side. “Police intervention was necessary to restore order. We have seen the recordings on social networks and understand that they may seem disturbing,” said the police regarding the intervention.
“All is calm now, police remain on campus,” police later wrote on the X platform.
Outgoing Dutch education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf said universities should be a place for dialogue and discussion and regretted that the police had to intervene.
Student protests against the war in the Gaza Strip and against academic institutions’ ties to Israel began to spread across Europe, but did not reach the scale of the protests at universities in the United States.
Last Friday, police in Paris entered the campus of the prestigious French Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and led out student activists who had occupied the buildings.
On Monday, more than 100 students occupied the university in Ghent, Belgium. They want to continue their protest against climate change and the war in Gaza until Wednesday.
Tags: proPalestinian demonstration Amsterdam dispersed police people detained
