Pro-Hamas demonstrations erupted at universities across Europe this week, reports Reuters.
In the Netherlands, anti-Israeli protesters occupied a site at the University of Amsterdam on Wednesday, a day after clashes with police who broke up an earlier sit-in. Several administration buildings have been damaged and several lecture halls remained closed due to the ongoing rallies.
Germany also witnessed similar protests. At the University of Leipzig, students occupied a lecture hall, setting up tents and displaying banners that read “University occupation against genocide”. The university filed a criminal complaint, prompting the police to clear the protest. At Berlin’s Free University, the authorities were called in after 80 Hamas student sympathizers set up a camp in a campus courtyard before attempting to occupy rooms and lecture halls.
In Paris, police were called to the prestigious Sciences Po university twice to disperse approximately 20 anti-Israel students who had barricaded themselves in the main hall. Meanwhile, dozens of students set up an illegal encampment at the University of Vienna in Austria, while in Belgium, more than 100 pro-Hamas students occupied a building at Ghent University as part of a combined protest focused on Gaza and climate issues.
