Across the Netherlands, teachers and students left lecture halls this morning to show their support for the pro-Palestinian protest and demonstrate against police violence. This was prompted by the eviction of pro-Palestinian occupiers from buildings of the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University last week.
Protestors refer to it in front of the UM administrative building: a free Palestine, severing all ties with Israel as well as a safe campus are the demands, they say. "Students are being imprisoned", says a speaker who does not want to reveal her name to the journalists present. "But actually the universities should be put on trial. They are complicit in genocide. How can you demonstrate peacefully against universities that support genocide?"
Fierce slogans
In Maastricht, meanwhile, the protesters are not put in harm's way: the local police are conspicuous by their absence and the security personnel present look on calmly, enjoying the bright spring sunshine. Things are fairly peaceful, with some students making cardboard signs on the spot with slogans such as "Stop genocide!" and "Free Palestine!".
There is, however, sharp language and fierce slogans, including the much-discussed ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. Controversial? Not to Jeff Handmaker, legal sociologist at the Rotterdam Erasmus University who has come to Limburg for the occasion. "I am Jewish and I see no anti-Semitism here today," he says. On the back of his phone is a sticker with the same slogan: for him, it is "a plea for equality" in Israel.
"Media out"
After some blazing speeches, the group headed towards the FASoS-building on the Grote Gracht, causing some puzzled looks on the terraces at the Vrijthof. Puzzled might also have been how the FASoS faculty board felt this morning, when they saw a small tent camp spring up in the faculty’s backyard. There, for the first time today, we see some masked people and things get tense for the first time. Media are not welcome because they distort the views of pro-Palestinian protesters, someone shouts through a megaphone. "Media out", is chanted. Some protesters decide to move to action and take it out on a cameraman from local broadcaster Wat is Loos in Mestreech: people try to cover his camera with flags. Eventually the fire is put out by bystanders. Protesters who oppose the media are thereby getting in the way of their own bidding, responds Thomas Bruning, general secretary of the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ) to news agency ANP.
Tent camp
Whether the tent camp will be allowed to remain in place is still unclear. UM President Rianne Letschert is currently talking with a delegation of students. Last weekend, interim president Jouke de Vries of the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) informed TV programme Buitenhof that the universities are working on a demonstration protocol. Two things are clear: university administrators will not negotiate with demonstrators who cannot identify themselves and no overnight stays are allowed in university buildings.