Pro-Palestinian protest
“Orders from the top”: Police remove 150 protesters from Humboldt University building
“Unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people,” demand the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have occupied the social science institute of Berlin’s Humboldt University
© Rolf Zöllner / Imago Images
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied rooms at Berlin’s Humboldt University on Wednesday. The police have now cleared the building of protesters.
The demonstrators occupied the university premises on Wednesday in protest against Israel and in support of the Palestinians. The occupiers, a group called Student Coalition Berlin, accused Israel of “genocide” and “ongoing mass murders” in a statement. They said they were “unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people.” Among other things, they are demanding that Berlin universities campaign for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and put pressure on the German government. The government should impose an arms embargo on Israel and end all military, financial and diplomatic aid to Israel.
In view of the evacuation, President von Blumenthal expressed her regret that no agreement had been reached. “I am not sure whether it would have been possible, but I had the impression that we had taken a good step with this dialogue,” she said after talks with the pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied the building. “Then the order came from the very top to end the occupation. I followed this order,” she said. By this she meant the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU), as she stated when asked.
University president offers talks
Blumenthal said of the talks with the activists that it was possible, with a moderator and in mutual respect, to “talk about what we can perhaps even bring together and also talk about what divides us.” It was also possible to listen to the suffering of the Palestinian students. Of course, she always had the suffering of the Jewish students in mind as well.
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Students protest for Palestine: Pictures of the riots
On Thursday evening, the mood at the university was heated, as a DPA reporter observed. Banners were hanging on the building, including one with the words “Free Palestine”. In the courtyard behind a fence, several dozen occupiers, some of them masked with Palestinian scarves, were standing and sitting. They chanted “Viva Palestine” and “Yallah Intifada”. Intifada refers to a series of attacks and terrorist attacks by Palestinians in Israel and is also interpreted as a call to violence. According to the activists’ spokeswoman, around 100 occupiers had spent the night at the institute. The university had tolerated the occupation until 6 p.m. on Thursday.
Humboldt University should act “consistently”
In the afternoon, Governing Mayor Wegner stated on Platform X that he expected Humboldt University “to take responsibility and act consistently now. Teaching must continue! Our universities are places of knowledge and critical discourse – and not lawless spaces for anti-Semites and terror sympathizers.”
Criticism also came from the police union (GdP). “The autonomy of teaching is important, and universities in particular should be seen as places of exchange and discussion,” said the spokesman for the regional association, Benjamin Jendro. But that is no basis for legitimizing the act outside the democratic framework, shouting anti-Semitic and contemptuous slogans, holding up anti-constitutional posters and committing property damage.
Middle East conflict reaches German universities
The conflict in the Middle East has now reached German universities. There are repeated protests against Israel’s actions in the Gaza war and actions by students in solidarity with the Palestinians. An occupation at the Free University of Berlin a few weeks ago was broken up by the police.
After the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, which left more than 1,200 people dead, more than 35,000 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza war that followed, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority, although the figure, which is difficult to verify independently, does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
In the English university city of Oxford, police arrested 16 people during a protest. According to a BBC report, it was a sit-in by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Officers visited a square at the university on Thursday morning, police said. It had previously been reported that demonstrators had gained access to a private office in one of the buildings.
Note: This article has been updated several times since the eviction began.