Anti-Gaza war students protest storm university campuses in Germany

 

Admin I Friday, May 02, 2024

 

BERLIN –  Students at Berlin’s Humboldt University held a pro-Palestinian protest on Friday, as rallies against Israel’s military actions in Gaza continued at university campuses across the United States and Britain.

About 90 people demonstrated in the inner courtyard of the campus in Berlin’s city centre at midday in an unannounced sit-in, according to the police.

Other supporters were in front of the building, totalling around 150 people. Many of the predominantly young people wore a keffiyeh, a chequered scarf that has become a sign of Palestinian solidarity.

“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty,” was written on one sign.

Another read, “From the Spree to overseas the people will rise in solidarity,” referring to Berlin’s Spree river.

The chant “Viva Palestina” (long live Palestine) could also be heard.

The president of the university, Julia von Blumenthal, was on site and in dialogue with the protesters.

For more than two weeks, there have been protests at numerous universities in the United States against the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip and in solidarity with the Palestinians living there.

According to media reports, 2,000 people have been detained in this context. The protests are mostly centred around the demand for universities and companies to cut financial ties with Israel.

Critics accuse the radical part of the protest movement in particular of anti-Semitism and trivializing the terrorist organization Hamas.

Students have also recently occupied university campuses across Britain in protest against the war in Gaza.