While the pro-Palestinian student protests escalated in the USA, things remained rather quiet in Germany. But that is now apparently changing, as the latest incident in the federal capital shows.
At a pro-Palestinian protest rally in front of the Humboldt University in Berlin on Friday, police said there were operations following “incitement to hatred”. The police said that individual participants were therefore taken to the emergency vehicles “including by force” in order to establish their identity. 300 people protested in front of the university’s main building on the central street Unter den Linden.
According to officials, participants obstructed access to the main building and refused to move the rally to another location. According to the university, there was also a parallel protest on Friday by around 25 to 30 people who sat on the ground in the so-called courtyard of honor on the university campus.
University President Julia von Blumenthal sought to talk to the demonstrators in the courtyard of honor and offered them the organization of a panel discussion if their protest ended peacefully. She made it clear that the exchange of “controversial opinions” is part of the nature of a university, “but not with shouting and megaphones.”
Worldwide unrest caused by pro-Palestine protests
According to the university, the Student Coalition Berlin group called for a protest in the Ehrenhof. She published pictures of the protest in front of the university and in its courtyard on the social network Instagram via her account. These showed, among other things, participants who were partly masked and chanting. According to its own statements, the group called for a “mass sit-in” in order to advocate, among other things, an “academic boycott” of Israeli universities and the recognition of a Palestinian state.
There have been massive student protests against the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip for several days at universities in the USA and other countries. This was triggered by the attack on Israel on October 7th by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU.
At that time, the Islamist fighters attacked Israeli towns and, according to Israeli information, killed around 1,170 people. They also kidnapped around 250 people as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been taking massive military action in the Gaza Strip since the major Hamas attack. According to the latest figures from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 34,600 people were killed. The civilian population in the Gaza Strip lives under precarious humanitarian conditions.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
