Back to 6 May | Lawyer Willem Jebbink: “Halsema wanted to show off her muscles”
This week marks exactly one year since the pro-Palestinian protests at the UvA got completely out of hand. In this series, Folia talks to various people involved about their experiences. Today part 4: lawyer Willem Jebbink, an expert in the field of expression offences and freedom of demonstration.
“For fifteen years, people planning to demonstrate have been asking me to be on standby and writing my phone number on their arms. That way, if they are arrested and end up in a cell, they can contact me. On 6 May too, I quickly realised that the activists were asking for my help. Still, I didn’t expect things to get so out of hand at first. I knew that a tent camp was being built, but as far as I knew, everything was going well. It was a peaceful form of protest, recognised by the European Court of Human Rights and the Dutch courts. So I didn’t think there was much to worry about.”
Breach of peace
“Until I was woken up in the early hours of 6 May, around 4 a.m., by students who told me they were being arrested and the camp was being broken up. I quickly sat down at my computer and sent an email to the public prosecutor to complain about the grounds for the arrest. The students had been arrested for breach of the peace on university grounds, but that is not a criminal offence. An hour later, I received a response saying that the public prosecutor did not agree with me. That turned out to be a rather ill-advised response, because six months later it was acknowledged that those protesters had indeed been arrested unjustly.”
“That was highly unprofessional. The Public Prosecution Service should know better than anyone how the law works. You would almost think that they were looking for a reason to arrest all those people. Perhaps they thought, let’s just charge them with trespassing, then they’ll be gone, and we’ll see what happens next. This was a violation of the right to demonstrate; the mayor should have tolerated this protest. She could have told the demonstrators that they would have a few weeks, or if necessary a few days, to express their opinions.”
“These activists were not causing any trouble. The violence only started when the university decided to report it to the police. When the demonstrators did not leave, the police deployed heavy equipment, which was extremely unlawful. It is shameful for the Netherlands that peaceful demonstrators are removed in this way. Accidents could easily have happened; this is going to end badly. The disproportionate way in which these activists are being dealt with is a real violation of the right to demonstrate.”
Muscle flexing
“But why was the municipality so quick to react? I think it has to do with the criticism Halsema received after she tolerated the demonstration against the presence of Israeli President Herzog at the opening of the Holocaust Museum. She did everything by the book, but she was heavily criticised, particularly from The Hague. I have the impression that she then wanted to show off her muscles at the first opportunity and was less than orthodox in her approach. She didn’t need to do that.”
