UvA closes buildings due to Palestine demonstration
Following the announcement of a demonstration on the UvA's failure to speak out against Israel’s actions in Gaza, the UvA closed both RECA and main building H at 3:45 p.m. today for security reasons. “We already announced this protest on Monday.”
Around 3:30 in the afternoon, around 15 security guards and more than 20 FAFS officers showed up at the UvA to escort students who wanted out of the locked RECA and main H buildings. The reason was a planned Palestine demonstration.
The UvA stated in flyers posted on the windows of the buildings that permission had not been granted for this demonstration. According to the university, demonstrating is only allowed under certain conditions. This demonstration could jeopardize the (social) safety of employees and students, according to the university.
All entrances were hermetically sealed at 3:45 p.m. for both demonstrators and students who wanted to enter. Students who had temporarily left their belongings behind were also denied access by security. In the morning, some students were already informed that lectures would not continue because of the announced demonstration.
The organization itself, like the UvA students, was told at 3:00 p.m. that both RECA and RECH would close completely. “It is absurd that the UvA only tells us an hour beforehand that they are taking away our right to demonstrate,” stated demonstration spokesperson Melis van Thijnveld, who, by the way, is not a student at the UvA.
Protests by the Central Student Council against the closing of buildings were also to no avail, says president Noah Pellikaan. The protesters planned to demonstrate at RECA and then walk from the campus to Central Station. After being banned from the main buildings, they still demonstrated on the bridge between RECA and the main building.
At 4:00 p.m., the group of about 50 men began chanting slogans. About eight of them wore vests with “law enforcement” written on them. Some of the protesters, including the “law enforcement” vest-bearers, wore scarves and Arab keffiyehs in front of their faces. They also hung banners with slogans reading “Students stand with Palestine” and “Climate justice is returned land,” thus linking the climate crisis to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Above all, they hoped to get a response from the UvA. “The UvA should speak out against the genocide in Gaza,” Van Thijnveld exclaims. “At the very least, like Ukraine, they should speak out against Israel's continuous violation of human rights.” Reading from the text on their cell phones, the organizers, along with the other demonstrators, chanted the controversial slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” This slogan is controversial as it is disputed whether it calls for violence. The group then chanted it in conjunction with the equally contentious phrase “One solution: Revolution.”
The protesters themselves were unwilling to comment further. “We do not study here,” a group of organizers explained. At 5:00 p.m., a diminished group left, drumming, in the direction of Central Station to continue the demonstration.
