5/14/2024–|Last updated: 5/14/202408:32 PM (Mecca time)
The student movement opposing the war on Gaza continues across Europe, as it has spread to new universities, and its intensity increased in the British capital on Tuesday, when students from the London School of Economics stormed one of the college’s largest buildings.
The students took control of the ground floor of the building, in an escalation of pressure on the college administration to respond to their demands.
The students rushed to enter the building despite attempts by security personnel to prevent them, and they chanted slogans denouncing the college administration’s ignoring of their demands, which include withdrawing investments from arms companies that support Israel in its war on Gaza.
Also in Britain, the number of signatories to an open letter in support of the University of Cambridge’s sit-in in solidarity with Gaza exceeded 1,700 of the university’s students, graduates, and faculty members.
Cambridge students continue their sit-in for the ninth day, demanding that the university administration reveal and withdraw investments from companies they say are complicit in Israeli war crimes, stressing that their sit-in will continue until all their demands are met.
In the Netherlands, the University of Amsterdam announced today the closure of its campus for two days as pro-Palestine demonstrations continue in a number of the country’s universities.
The university said, in a statement, that it decided to close all buildings on campus on Tuesday and Wednesday, because “it is not possible to guarantee the safety of students and employees.”
She stated that her decision came because “yesterday’s peaceful protests turned into violent acts and sit-ins,” according to her claim.
The university administration stressed that it will conduct negotiations in the future with its employees and students only instead of activists.
In Belgium, students at 5 universities continue their sit-ins to pressure the boards of directors to sever their relations with Israeli institutions and entities and reveal the current forms of cooperation.
The sit-in by Ghent University students has entered its tenth day, and universities in Leuven, Antwerp, Liège, and the capital, Brussels, have also joined this movement since the beginning of this week.
The student protesters in Europe are calling for an end to the Israeli war on Gaza and for an academic boycott of institutions that support Israel, raising the same slogans raised by students at American universities from which the spark of protests began on April 18.