Dutch PM: Gaza protesters “clearly over the line”; 32 arrested in Amsterdam

 

THURSDAY, 9 MAY 2024 - 08:12

Dutch PM: Gaza protesters “clearly over the line”; 32 arrested in Amsterdam

Update 11:44 a.m. - Article updated with quote from Prime Minister Mark Rutte

https://nltimes.nl/2024/05/09/dutch-pm-gaza-protesters-clearly-line-32-arrested-amsterdam

 

Protests against the war in Gaza have gone "clearly over the line," Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on X on Thursday. There were again pro-Palestinian protests at universities in Amsterdam and Utrecht overnight. The police arrested 32 people in Amsterdam. In Utrecht, protesters were taken away in buses. That protest broke up with no big clash with the police. It’s unclear whether the police arrested anyone in Utrecht, NOS reports.

 

"Demonstrations are allowed. Always. But using violence against the police and causing destruction is never allowed. Stop that!" the outgoing Prime Minister said. "More and more often and with increasingly harsh words, the violence in Gaza is being blamed on Jewish Dutch people. Unjustly! It is a form of anti-Semitism that we must continue to fight loud and clear. Don't be silent, don't look away. I will discuss this further on Monday in the Catshuis with numerous social organizations. Anti-Semitism should have no place in the Netherlands."

 

Late Wednesday afternoon, the police intervened in the protest in Amsterdam, where demonstrators had occupied the Binnengasthuis site of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) since Tuesday. The eviction started when the university filed charges of vandalism. It said that the protesters were putting locals’ safety at stake and preventing education in the Oudemanhuispoort. Police broke down the barricades while protesters emptied fire extinguishers on them and pelted them with objects. The riot police struck multiple protesters.

 

Some of the protesters who were removed from the UvA building moved to the Rokin and blocked the passage of GVB city buses that were used to transport arrested demonstrators. Later in the evening, the police forced the demonstrators to leave the Rokin, chasing them towards Muntplein. The hundreds of demonstrators later moved to Rembrandplein, where the group started thinning out around 11:00 p.m.

 

About 45 minutes later, the police reported that they arrested 32 people for public violence, vandalism, assault, and incitement.

 

In Utrecht, demonstrators occupied a Utrecht University building on the Drift. University chairman Anton Pijpers showed up at the building for a second time, ordering the protestors to leave. Earlier, he told them to leave before 10:00 p.m. when the building closed. This time, he said everyone had to be out by 00:05 a.m., or the police would remove them.

 

The police started removing protesters. That happened with no big resistance. The first demonstrators were carted off by bus at around 1:00 a.m. The others began leaving after 2:00 a.m. About half an hour later, the Utrecht police told NOS that they took about 40 demonstrators away by city buses. “They were dropped off at a different location and not arrested,” the spokesperson said.

 

ANP reported that Utrecht University decided to keep its educational and research buildings in the city center closed until 8:00 a.m. on Monday to “prevent further nuisance and potentially unsafe situations.” The university “urgently appeals to all its students to maintain peace, prevent further escalation, and continue to treat each other with respect.”

 

Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf said he watched images of demonstrators causing destruction with “horror,” speaking on Op1 on Wednesday evening. “This is simply unacceptable,” he said. “Of course, that has nothing to do with a university. It must be a place that is safe and where everyone feels safe.” According to Dijkgraaf, the demonstrators weren’t only students and lecturers but also “professional rioters.”

 

The demonstrators are protesting against the war in Gaza, demanding that the universities break ties with Israeli institutions, among other things.

 

As of 11:20 a.m. on May 7, local time, Israeli attacks have killed more than 34,789 people in Gaza, including over 4,500 children. More than 78,204 people are injured, and over 8,000 are missing, Al Jazeera reported based on figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

 

Israel has now started attacking Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip where over a million Palestinians have fled to on Israel’s orders as the country bombed the rest of the coastal strip. This week, Israel captured the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt - the last crossing where trickles of aid were still entering Gaza.

 

Israeli attacks have destroyed or damaged 60 percent of Gaza homes, some 80 percent of commercial facilities, 73 percent of school buildings, and 267 places of worship, Al Jazeera wrote based on figures from the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the Palestinian government, updated on May 6. Only 12 of the 35 hospitals in Gaza are functioning, none of them fully, and 83 percent of the groundwater wells are not operational.

 

The Israeli war started after Hamas committed a terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, killing around 1,139 people.