Photo Lieke Mulder/DG. Two days after the clearing of the pro-Palestine tent camp on the WUR campus, the place is empty and quiet. Only a flapping strip of a Palestinian flag on one of the posts of the bridge reminds of the months-long protest. A retrospective with an activist and the mayor.
It is Thursday morning, the day after the clearance. Two security guards arrive. They have a pair of claw hammers and pliers with them. Remove screws from the bridge and fish out a broken tent pole between the planks of the bridge. Cyclists might puncture their tyres on it, they say. Protesters turned the screws into the bridge months earlier to secure their tents so that they would not blow away. For lack of soil and pegs.
WUR had the tent camp, which was getting bigger and messier and where no one had stayed overnight in recent days, removed in the early evening on Wednesday because of the storm. And so nowthe bridge is empty and bare. Matijn, spokesperson for the pro-Palestine demonstrators thinks it is a strange sight: ‘Yes, this takes some getting used to.’
National attention
Matijn is not convinced of the storm argument: ‘We had heavy storms before in the past six months, then the university never expressed concerns and took no action. Security that was supposedly hired for our safety stood by happily during a storm before the summer when our tents almost blew into the pond. So I don’t find it very credible that this happened for our safety. It seems more likely to us that it has to do with the action we organized for today. There will be speeches on campus, after which there will be a walking march to the city centre. We are also going to hold a vigil, where during 24 hours the names of Palestinian victims will be recited. We expect national media coverage, so perhaps the board of directors thought it was a good time to have cleared the camp for that.’
At the march this Friday, the controversial Mohammed Khatib has been invited to speak. He is not allowed to enter the Netherlands, so he will speak to the protesters via video. Matijn: ‘We don’t have to agree with all Khatib’s statements, but we stand behind Samidoun, the organisation he is foreman of. They stand up for the Palestinians Israel is illegally detaining. These include are a large number of children, who are regularly tortured, abused and killed. Despite this, both Samidoun and Khatib himself are criminalised and have their work made difficult. So we think it is very important to give him a platform so that they can continue their good work.’
‘They refused to leave’
According to WUR, the storm was the reason for the camp to be cleared. The intervention of the police was because activists came to the camp when the clearing started, according to Wageningen mayor Floor Vermeulen. Vermeulen: ‘WUR did not order that storm because it was convenient.’ On the deployment of the police: ‘That was necessary because public order was disrupted. That was indeed my decision. WUR asked the activists to leave. Some of them refused to do so. Should some protesters feel that the action was too harsh, they can complain about it.’
And about the demonstration and Mohammed Khatib’s speaking on Friday: ‘I have an opinion about that, but it’s not my role to say anything about it or ban the demonstration.’
No more overnight stays
In case the pro-Palestine activists may have hopes of rebuilding a tent camp in the spring, that will not happen, board member Rens Buchwaldt stated yesterday in Resource: ‘Regulations are that you cannot spend the night on campus. We made an exception to that at the beginning of this action. We will not do that again.’ Matijn: ‘We will definitely continue to take action, such as organising lectures and contacting the – academic – community. I don’t know if we will set up a new camp. We still need to discuss that and more.’
Part of this article was published before in De Gelderlander/Lieke Mulder. Translated with help of DeepL.
