It all starts peacefully. At around 1 pm, action group Students for Palestine starts a sit-in on various staircases inside the Wijnhaven building.
‘Join us, it is your right to protest!’ Activists encourage other students to join in. ‘University is not listening to us. Occupy the stairs!’ More and more people join the protest, and each time, they are met with cheers from the demonstrators.
 
Groups of demonstrators, wearing keffiyehs and face masks, take up position on the steps. Banners hang from the railings with slogans such as: ‘Fuck Your Committee! Academic Boycott Now!’
 
The students – who had previously announced via social media that they would be taking action this month under the banner Month of Rage for Palestine – are demanding an end to the university’s collaboration with Israeli institutions and say that the committee appointed by the university to investigate those academic ties is taking too long. Incidentally, Tilburg University announced on Wednesday that it is cutting its ties with two universities in Israel.
 
Meanwhile, another group of demonstrators has gathered outside the Wijnhaven building. They are no longer able to enter the building: university security guards have locked all doors, much to the frustration of a large group of students and staff who are now unable to enter or leave.
 
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Professor of Peace, Justice and Security Bert Koenders unsuccessfully pleads with the police and security guards to be allowed to go outside.

About half an hour into the sit-in, the demonstrators also want to leave the building of their own accord to join the protest outside. ‘Form a line’, someone in the group calls out. Holding onto each other’s shoulders, they try to leave the building two by two. But because the university had locked the doors earlier, it takes a long time for everyone to get out.
 
At around 1.30 pm, some two hundred demonstrators are gathered outside the door. They chant slogans such as: ‘Boycott! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest’, ‘Cops off campus’ and ‘Fuck the police!’

BARRICADE

A small number of demonstrators remain on the third floor of the building. Outside, a group of about 40 demonstrators forms a human barricade around the side entrance of the faculty building.
 
According to the university, several doors and emergency exits were ‘damaged and rendered unusable’ during the occupation. Some doors were reportedly chained shut as well.
 
Throughout the afternoon, more and more police gather around the building. Shortly after 2 pm, several vans carrying riot police arrive and form a cordon around the entrance to the Wijnhaven building. A police helicopter circles the scene. Not long after, the Turfmarkt is cordoned off altogether and a police arrest unit arrives, along with two vans carrying police dogs. The demonstrators are driven back by the police to about fifty metres away from the entrance. ‘We are students, why are you here? We are peaceful, what are you?’, they shout, as they are pushed back. And: ‘Police disgrace! Blood on your hands!’

INJURED

To clear the group away from the side entrance, police use considerable force. Officers repeatedly strike demonstrators on the head with batons. An officer pushes a baton into a student’s throat to move them back. One of the demonstrators who was hit on the head lies on the ground shortly afterwards with a head injury. An ambulance arrives quickly to treat him and another demonstrator.
 
A first-aid provider tells Mare that over the course of the afternoon, five demonstrators lost consciousness and he treated about 20 injured demonstrators in total.
 
One of the demonstrators in front of the building collapses for reasons unknown, after which a struggle ensues between several demonstrators and a police officer. Several demonstrators react angrily and the woman who collapsed kicks at the police officer after bystanders help her back to her feet.

At around 3.30 pm, when an onlooker briefly joins in the demonstrators’ chanting, she is grabbed by the arms by two police officers, dragged away, and placed within the protest group.

Not long after, police officers instruct bystanders to either head towards the station or into the city centre. Once everyone complies, police vans fence off the action group from passers-by. However, from behind the police vans, people start calling out to the demonstrators: ‘You’re not alone!’

One of the demonstrators is pulled out of the group and dragged to the side of the street by two police officers. She resists as the officers take her phone. Another officer stands guard with a baton while the rest of the police try to keep bystanders at a distance. Shortly after, she is pushed into a police van by the two officers, as bystanders shout ‘let her go’.

MOVE

At the side entrance, calm has returned. The remaining demonstrators stand arm in arm, chanting ‘fight for peace and justice’, while surrounded by police officers with shields and batons. Two injured demonstrators are removed from the ambulance, searched, and transferred to a police van.

About an hour later, a demonstrator is pulled from the group; she is holding her elbow as she walks off with two people in yellow vests. Two officers walk up to speak with her, and after a while, she is taken away by the officers in a police van.

At 4.15 pm, the group of demonstrators in front of the Wijnhaven building is ordered by the police to move towards the station. After some hesitation, the demonstrators lock arms and walk away chanting. Once the tail of the procession crosses the Zwartebrug, chaos erupts. Police and demonstrators crisscross each other’s paths. A police dog starts barking and a riot van knocks over a bin. A few people are arrested; all bystanders and remaining demonstrators are driven away.

At the side of the building, a group of about 30 demonstrators remains, arm in arm. They remain surrounded by police for over an hour, until around 5 pm, when officers begin arresting them in pairs and taking them away in custody vans. The last demonstrator is eventually taken away in a van around 6 pm.

75 demonstrators were arrested in total. On social media, the Encampment.LeidenTheHague account reports that all arrestees were released by 11 pm.

HOUSE RULES

In a statement published on its website on Tuesday afternoon, the university says it handed control of the building over to the police after several demonstrators refused to leave following a formal order: ‘This is in accordance with the rules for occupations.’

The university also announced that Wijnhaven and Beehive would ‘reopen as normal’ on Wednesday. However, the LU-Card checks ‘will be intensified’ and there will be ‘more security on the premises’.

When asked whether the university considers the police action proportionate, spokesperson Caroline van Overbeeke replies: ‘Everyone present in the building, including the demonstrators, was able to leave the building safely and independently. The police action took place outside in the street.’

According to Van Overbeeke, the university locked the doors to the Wijnhaven building after signs pointed to a potential demonstration or occupation. ‘A group of masked demonstrators was spotted approaching the building. The door was then closed and the police were notified. Unannounced demonstrations and face coverings are not allowed.’

On Wednesday evening, the university publishes an additional statement online. In it, the Executive Board reflects on the demonstration: ‘The Executive Board cannot condone the way the demonstrators tried to draw attention to the situation in the Middle East. This caused damage to the building, and the teaching and other activities had to be cancelled for a day.

‘The Executive Board is also shocked by the confrontations in the street between some of the demonstrators and the police. The police detained several demonstrators on suspicion of vandalism. Demonstrations are always permitted within our university community, but our house rules must be followed to ensure demonstrations proceed in a safe and orderly fashion.’

When talking to Mare, the organisers of the demonstration deny causing any damage: ‘That is completely untrue. In fact, we were careful not to damage anything. If something did get broken, it happened when the police stormed in.’