At the faculty's main entrance on Bouillon Street, there are some twenty protesters shouting slogans and chanting. While security guards, enforcers and officers watch from a distance, students and staff discover this morning that they are not allowed inside. From the calm demonstrators, they get a flyer pressed into their hands with demands: UM must still cut ties with Israeli institutions - not just freeze them, as has been the case since the end of May 2024 - and “condemn the Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
Around 11:30 p.m., the protesters left again, on their own accord, according to the university. There has been contact with them, says spokesman Koen Augustijn. “Of a practical nature: about keeping enough space for people to still be able to go inside and outside.” The Executive Board has invited the protesters for a further conversation - at the time this post went online, it was not yet clear whether they are responding.
Around 1:30 p.m., the protesters showed up at the Arts and Social Sciences faculty, where they blocked the entrances on the Grote Gracht. After slogans and a brief discussion with students campaigning for the university elections - “Why don't you chant with us?” - the demonstration here was over.