Dutch police detains 125 pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Amsterdam university

AMSTERDAM, May 7 (ST) – Dutch police ended a pro-Palestinian demonstration at an Amsterdam university early on Tuesday, bulldozing barricades and detaining some 125 demonstrators, authorities said.

In messages posted overnight on social media X, police said they had to act to stop the event and dismantle tents that been set up by protesters.

Requests from the University of Amsterdam and the mayor for the protesters to leave the campus were ignored, the police said.

Outgoing Education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf said universities are a place for dialogue and debate and he was sad to see that police had to intervene.

Student protests over the war and academic ties with Israel have begun to spread across Europe but have remained much smaller in scale than those seen in the United States.

Last Friday, police in Paris entered France’s prestigious Sciences Po university and removed student activists who had occupied its buildings.

Source: Reuters

Edited by: Basma Qaddour