Pro-Palestine protesters block Roetersstraat
Some 40 pro-Palestine demonstrators block the Roetersstraat. Cars are forced to make a detour. Earlier in the day, the protesters were evicted by police from a squat at Achter Oosteinde.
Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters cordoned off Roetersstraat by forming a human ribbon across the full width of the street. Most sat, others stood and chanted the now familiar slogans through megaphones. From calling for an intifada to "Every time the police lie, a child in Gaza dies."
As the location of the protest - right in front of the Roeterseiland campus - indicates, the demonstration is also directed against the UvA. Like other universities in the Netherlands, the UvA does not want to categorically sever ties with Israeli educational institutions, much to the displeasure of the protesters, who believe that by doing so the UvA is facilitating the war in Gaza: 'UvA, UvA you can't hide, stop supporting genocide.'
Squatters
Earlier in the day, police demanded the departure of several Pro-Palestine protesters from a squat on Achter Oosteinde. The squatters stayed there for nearly three weeks and proclaimed the building a campus of the People's Free University. According to the Instagram account Amsterdam Student Encampment, these are the same people who are now blocking the Roetersstraat.
