Safety fears surrounding pro-Palestine protests at the University of Amsterdam have prompted the institution to cancel all classes for two days, on May 14th and 15th, and to close all of its buildings.
Violent clashes have broken out between demonstrators and riot police three times in the past week. Reports say these took place after a group of “masked outsiders” joined the original peaceful group of activists calling for the university to cut its ties with Israeli institutions. Some of the mob caused “serious damage” to the building. The cost of this disruption has not been unveiled, but will be great.
Similar action has been taking place in other major European cities, mimicking the often violent university sit-ins which have taken over many U.S. campuses in recent months.
In Paris, blockades were erected and violence ensued as pro-Palestinian protesters made their voices heard at the prestigious Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris late last month. The institution conceded to the demonstrators’ demands, in a move criticised as a submission to the far-Left.
Students at Ireland’s Trinity College, in Dublin, also this month forced the institution to abandon some Israeli investments and has committed to looking into divesting from them all. Jenny Maguire, who is president-elect of the student union, boasted that “It felt like we had won,” adding: “It was shocking how quickly they turned around.”
In Germany, police were called in to remove protesters this month after the Freie Universität Berlin accused some of attempting to enter university rooms and lecture halls. The president of the institution said:
This kind of protest is not dialogue oriented. An occupation of university property is not acceptable. We welcome academic debate and dialogue—but not in this form.
Berlin police later pointed to “isolated cases of deprivation of liberty for incitement to hatred”—again, at an unreported (but likely significant) cost.
Campus protests in Britain appear to have been less violent—meaning police have been “largely hands-off”—but no less widespread. Encampments have been established at universities including Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield, and Newcastle, as well as at Cambridge and Oxford. At the latter of these institutions, a masked woman asked local resident—and Mail on Sunday columnist—Peter Hitchens: “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?” He wrote:
It is a question to which I could safely answer, “None at all,” if she paused for breath to let me speak. But she is not listening, and nor are the 50 or so others who are joining in the chant. So I just grin at them.
In March, a group of student protesters shut down one of the largest departments at Goldsmiths University in London, angry at the institution’s management for having “failed to engage” with its demands to shut down relations with Israel.
Earlier this month, London’s Metropolitan Police also revealed that the cost of policing pro-Palestine protests in the capital alone has exceeded £40 million (€46.5 million)—all from the taxpayers’ purse, alongside the additional costs caused (and continuing to be caused) by action at campuses across the nation.
