This was the Maagdenhuis occupation: 13 arrests, graffiti on the walls and heavy blows from the police.
Tuesday morning, UvA students, staff and the board woke up after the turbulent occupation of the Maagdenhuis, during which the riot police intervened and thirteen arrests were made.
Shortly before noon, the UvA spokesperson reports that an estimated fifty pro-Palestine demonstrators have occupied the Maagdenhuis. In response, UvA employees on site have left the building, according to one of those employees in a “peaceful” manner. Outside, demonstrators chant slogans and wave (Palestinian) flags.
The demonstrators and occupiers are said to be UvA students, including people affiliated with United Front for Palestine, a coalition of political and pro-Palestinian student and staff organizations including Activistenpartij UvA and UvA Intifada.
The reason for the occupation is the occupation of the Roeterseiland campus a year ago. They also gave the Maagdenhuis a new name: Dr. Sirin Mohammed Al-Attar, according to the group a dedicated UNRWA gynecologist who was killed on October 11, 2023, in the al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
The activists denounce on Instagram the “countless failed attempts to enter into a dialog with the University of Amsterdam about their ties to Israeli universities that are complicit in the genocide” and therefore see no “other choice” than to block the building in protest.
During the occupation, the number of demonstrators outside on the square in front of the building, cordoned off by the police, increases to approximately 150 people, including students and staff who have joined the occupation. A few occupiers give speeches on the steps and banners are rolled out of the windows and from the roof of the Maagdenhuis. The national press arrives, as do more police officers and prisoner transport vans.
Batons and homemade shields
After ten demonstrators attempted to get past the barricades at around 2 p.m. to bring food and water to the Maagdenhuis, the police intervened: twenty officers who had been called in quickly struck dozens of students on the square with batons, who were trying to defend themselves with homemade wooden shields. An hour later, the riot police surround the square and order the demonstrators, who have formed a human chain, and the squatters to leave or they will proceed with the eviction. By now, the squatters have barricaded the doors and are setting off smoke bombs from the windows.
Late in the afternoon, thirty riot police enter the Maagdenhuis through the front door, while a few demonstrators manage to escape through a side door. At the same time, demonstrators who had meanwhile moved to the Binnengasthuis site were “encircled” by “undercover officers and riot police with dogs” and beaten severely with batons, causing a woman to “collapse”, as can be seen in videos circulating on Instagram.
Eventually the occupiers are handcuffed and escorted through the front door of the Maagdenhuis and into arrest vans, to the loud cheers and jeers of the crowd on the square. The crowd and the police leave, while a few demonstrators move to Dam Square to continue the protest. In response to the eviction, the Central Works Council (COR) asks the Executive Board to “listen to the protesting students and colleagues, instead of immediately escalating the situation”.
Thirteen arrests
On Tuesday morning, the police reported that a total of thirteen arrests had been made in and around the Maagdenhuis. Two people were sent home with a “settlement”, such as a fine. Eleven people are reportedly still detained for “vandalism” and “trespassing”, among other things. The justice department will make a decision about what will happen to these people.
Inside the Maagdenhuis, graffiti has been sprayed on the walls reading “Free Gaza”, and chairs have been overturned or used as barricades at the emergency exits. On Tuesday, the University of Amsterdam announced that it is “assessing” the damage to the Maagdenhuis and that the building will remain closed for the rest of the day while this is being done.
On Instagram, the organizations affiliated with the United Front for Palestine expressed their dissatisfaction with the police violence used and the lack of response from the University of Amsterdam. Chair of the board Edith Hooge emphasized that although there is room for a dialogue within the university about the violence in Gaza, the university does not want to enter into discussions with the demonstrators.
