Police seeks external help in investigation into police violence at Palestine protests
The Amsterdam police brings in external researchers to evaluate the police behaviour during the Palestine demonstrations at the UvA last May. The investigators will assess the violence evaluation conducted by the police.
Mayor Femke Halsema announced in a letter to the city council on Wednesday that police chief Peter Holla wants a more extensive and external investigation to be conducted into the police action during the Palestine demonstrations in May 2024.
Previous police boss Frank Paauw already instituted an internal review following the police action during the protests on 6, 8 and 9 May. The new Amsterdam police chief is now expanding that to include the occupation on 13 May. Moreover, he is adding two external researchers: VU sociologist Jaap Timmer and criminologist Henk Ferwerda. Halsema informs that the results of the investigation into the violence will take longer due to the expansion.
In the evictions at Roeterseiland (6 and 13 May) and Oudemanhuispoort (8 May), police officers used batons to beat protesters and used shovels to destroy barricades. An external review of nominated investigators Timmer and Ferwerda will help assess this action.
Timmer is attached to the Department of Public Administration at the VU, Ferwerda is a police researcher with a PhD from the University of Groningen. Both have experience in researching police performance, Halsema writes. They will assess the evaluation prepared by the police internally. Researcher Ferwerda would not yet comment by phone on exactly which aspects of police performance will be looked at.
Excessive violence
In the city council last month, students spoke of excessive police violence during the protests, to which the council urged a thorough investigation. Images appeared on social media of officers striking lying students or otherwise delivering hard blows, among other things. Several students reported injuries caused by the police brutality. For instance, one student told a council meeting that she had suffered a fractured skull due to a blow from a police bat, but that reporting to the police was discouraged.
Councillors also condemned the use of police dogs and the bashing of tents. Human rights organisation Amnesty International, with observers present at the protests, criticised that police on several occasions during the Palestine demonstrations “failed to exploit opportunities for de-escalation”.
Eviction without grounds
Moreover, last September, Prosecution already announced that it would not sue the students arrested on Roeterseiland on 6 May. The cases were dismissed because the grounds for the arrests, trespassing, were not lawful grounds according to the public prosecutor. Roeterseiland is also public area, so there could be no question of a UvA property.
The Denk party and Jazie Veldhuizen of List Ahmadi-Veldhuyzen, present at the protests, pointed out that this unlawful ground had already been warned of by the protesters’ lawyer Willem Jebbink that night. Despite this, the mayor pressed ahead with the eviction on the grounds of trespassing on the night of 6 May. A majority of the city council questioned the speed with which the mayor, prosecution and police proceeded with the eviction, but did not consider its action disproportionate.
