AMSTERDAM (AP) — Police arrested about 125 activists as they broke up a pro-Palestinian demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam early Tuesday, as protests that have roiled campuses in the United States spread into Europe.
Students held protests or set up encampments in Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Britain.
Police in the Dutch capital said in a statement on the social media platform X that their action was “necessary to restore order” after protests turned violent. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Video from the scene aired by national broadcaster NOS showed police using a mechanical digger to push down barricades and officers wielding batons and shields moving in to end the demonstration, beating some of the protesters and pulling down tents.
Protesters formed barricades from wooden pallets and bicycles, NOS reported.
Scores of demonstrators occupied a small island at the university on Monday, urging Amsterdam universities to break academic ties with Israel because of its offensive in Gaza in the aftermath of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants in southern Israel.
There have also been demonstrations in recent days at campuses in France and the United Kingdom.
Photos from the Amsterdam campus Tuesday morning showed tents, banners and food along with piles of cobblestones that had been pulled up from the street.
Before police moved in, scuffles broke out Monday night between two rival groups of activists.
Police said in a statement that they cleared the makeshift camp after the protesters refused repeated orders to leave.
“The protest in this form created a very unsafe situation, partly due to the barricades that prevented emergency services from entering the site. In the event of a disaster, the activists themselves could possibly become stuck on the site,” police said.
They said the campus was calm Tuesday morning, but that officers remained present in the area.
Calls to the university went unanswered early Tuesday and the university did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
In Finland, dozens of protesters from the Students for Palestine solidarity group set up an encampment outside the main building at the University of Helsinki. Demonstrators said they would stay at the site in central Helsinki until the university, which is Finland’s largest academic institution, cuts academic ties with Israeli universities.
In Denmark, students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Copenhagen. About 45 tents were erected on the lawn outside the campus of the Faculty of Social Sciences, known as CSS. The faculty sits in an old municipal hospital in the heart of the Danish capital.
The university’s administration said students can protest on campus but called on them to respect the rules on its grounds. “Seek dialogue, not conflict and make room for perspectives other than your own,” the administrators said in a statement posted on X.
It said the administration “cannot and must not express an opinion on behalf of university employees and students about political matters, including about the ongoing conflict” in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
On their Facebook page, members of the activist group Students Against the Occupation said their attempts to talk to the administration over the past two years about withdrawing the school’s investments from companies with ties to activities in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have been in vain.
“We can no longer be satisfied with cautious dialogue that does not lead to concrete action,” the group said.
In Germany, pro-Palestinian activists occupied a courtyard at the Free University in Berlin on Tuesday, German news agency dpa reported.
Around 80 to 100 people were involved in the protest at the university, known as FU. Several tents could be seen in photos posted on Instagram by a group named the Student Coalition Berlin, dpa reported. The university’s administration said it had ordered the removal of the protesters.
In Italy, students at the University of Bologna, one of the world’s oldest universities, set up a tent encampment over the weekend to demand an end to the war in Gaza as Israel prepared an offensive in Rafah, despite pleas from its Western allies against it. Groups of students organized similar protests in Rome and Naples, which were largely peaceful.
More than a dozen tents were set up in a piazza named for a university student who fought against fascist rule during World War II. Some were decorated with Palestinian flags and a banner read “Student Intefadeh” or Student Uprising.”
In Spain, dozens of students have spent over a week at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of Valencia campus. Similar camps were set up Monday at the University of Barcelona and at the University of the Basque Country. A group representing students at Madrid’s public universities announced it would step up protests against the war in the coming days.
In Paris and in London, student groups called for gatherings in solidarity with Palestinians later Tuesday.
On Friday, French police peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, after they had gathered in support of Palestinians.
On Tuesday, students at the prestigious institution, which counts French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and President Emmanuel Macron among its alumni, were seen entering the campus unobstructed to take exams as police stood at the entrances.
Protests took place last week at some other universities across the country, including in Lille and Lyon. The Prime Minister’s Office said police had been requested to remove students from 23 sites on French campuses.
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Surk reported from Nice, France. Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Joe Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland, contributed to this report.
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