Violent Pro-Hamas ‘Student’ Protests Sweeping Europe

ANALYSIS – Yes, these protests are orchestrated and funded by an unholy union between far-left Marxists and Islamist activists and terror sympathizers. The students are just useful idiots.

Violent pro-Hamas demonstrations that have roiled U.S. campuses have spread to Europe, with protests and the setting up of encampments in at least 24 universities.

These institutions are facing the same decisions that have challenged American colleges – to kowtow or crack down?

Fortunately, some have cracked down. German police broke up a protest by between sixty and eighty pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard on Freie Universität Berlin’s campus on Tuesday, May 7.

“An occupation is not acceptable on the FU Berlin campus,” university president Guenter Ziegler said. “We are available for academic dialogue — but not in this way.”

But others appear to be stuck in between. Protesters occupied a university building in Amsterdam hours after police detained 169 people. “We share the anger and bewilderment over the war, and we understand that there are protests.”

“We stress that within the university, dialogue about it is the only answer,” the University of Amsterdam said in a statement. Hundreds of protesters also gathered on Wednesday afternoon outside the university of Utrecht, about 28 miles southeast of Amsterdam.

And then there are those who simply cave. Some colleges have allowed protesters to stay in camps on campus, like the lawns of Cambridge (where I earned a Master’s degree).

“Oxbridge’s profits cannot continue to climb at the expense of Palestinian lives, and their reputations must no longer be built on the whitewashing of Israeli crimes,” said a joint statement from protesters at Oxford and Cambridge universities.

But without decisive action, these foreign inspired and Marxist led turmoil will only grow and spread.

In recent days, students have held protests or set up encampments in Finland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, France and Britain. Protesters’ demands generally call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, disclosures of institutional investments and divestment from companies with ties to Israel or that otherwise profit from its military operation in Gaza.

As YNetNews reported:

Pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campuses across Europe almost immediately after the events of October 7 and the beginning of the war. However, in the past week, what were previously sporadic gatherings, with only dozens of demonstrators, have transformed into organized, funded and violent mass protests involving hundreds [and even thousands] of students.

The outlet added:

According to the university in Berlin (Freie Universität), the protesters attempted to storm and seize lecture halls unsuccessfully. The composition of the demonstrators included university students, students from other universities, and other external factors. The university is identified as being pro-Palestinian, with many professors openly expressing such sentiments.

At Amsterdam University, police used force to detain 125 students out of hundreds who set up a protest tent encampment on campus, demanding an end to cooperation with Israel. Videos documenting the events showed significant violence by the protesters, mainly Muslims, toward Jewish students nearby, followed by intense clashes between the police and the demonstrators. The same protesters refused to disperse. After the confrontations, police closed the area and dispersed the protest.

In Finland, dozens of students erected a protest tent camp in front of the main building of the University of Helsinki, demanding the university terminate all academic ties with Israel. Like the tent protests in Amsterdam and Berlin, and on campuses in New York and elsewhere in the United States, the tents in Helsinki had a uniform appearance, suggesting external organization and funding for the protests.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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