Pro-Palestine demonstrators chalk pavement at Roeterseiland during spontaneous protest
On Monday afternoon, there was a small protest by pro-Palestine activists on the Roeterseiland campus. They wrote slogans on the pavement and around the bridge. They are once again demanding that the University of Amsterdam cut all ties with Israel.
The protest began shortly after 1:00 p.m. at the ABC building with two demonstrators shouting slogans such as “Free, free Palestine" and “From the river to the sea” through megaphones. In the half hour that followed, a handful of people joined in by writing slogans such as “Your tuition funds genocide” and “UvA cut ties” on the pavement, benches and posts with red sidewalk chalk.
Some demonstrators who had joined the protest a few minutes earlier said they had come after seeing an Instagram appeal. Although no security personnel came to the protest, one of the demonstrators said that two police officers had briefly stopped by and had taken photos of a few of the chalk slogans before leaving.
Spontaneous
One of the demonstrators with a megaphone stated that it was a “spontaneous” protest and expressed the hope that “such protests will be organized more often”, to “stir up the fire at the UvA”.
Earlier this month, the University of Amsterdam announced that it would not be renewing the student exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It is unclear whether the protest was in response to this decision.
