Foto: Resource. After more than six months of occupation of the bridge between Forum and Orion, an end is put to the tent camp tonight. Police are on the scene. The activists refuse to leave.
Translation using DeepL.
The longest-running pro-Palestine encampment at Dutch universities appears to be coming to an end tonight. Men began removing tents around seven o’clock. Not long after, some 15 activists came and the atmosphere became a little grim. The men removing tents were filmed at close range and activist tried to salvage belongings. After some threats back and forth, the police arrived, and the students withdrew. Student and spokesman for the activists Boris is outraged by a show of hands with the eviction officer. ‘And we had no notice beforehand that there would be evacuation.’ After eight, as the evacuation restarted, some of the activists left and some remained seated while singing ‘Power to the people’ and ‘Free, Free, Palestine’. Police informs them that the duty officer is on his way.
Spokesperson Vincent Koperdraat was at the scene and said that this is a ‘clearance’ and not an evacuation. ‘We are doing this for safety reasons. It’s getting too dangerous with this storm. All sorts of things are blowing away.’ He also adds that Brick – who was living on the bridge until two days ago – did receive advance notice.
On May 15, students started the encampment. They were and are still calling on WUR to break all links with Israeli institutes.
UPDATE: the bridge is nearly empty now and the police are leaving. No arrests were made.
