Student protests against Israel’s genocidal bombardment and starvation of Gaza are spreading across Europe.

In Germany, thousands of students have mobilised in support of Palestine, leading demonstrations, organising lectures and sit-ins occupying university buildings and campus lawns. They have faced hostile media coverage, repressive legal measures taken by universities and politicians, and police violence.

Students who occupied the department of social sciences at Berlin’s Humboldt University were evicted by police, with 25 charged with suspicion of committing criminal acts. The occupation followed the dismantling of an encampment at Berlin’s Free University earlier this month, with officers punching, choking and kicking peaceful protesters without provocation, while they made 79 arrests.

After more than 300 lecturers from Berlin universities signed an open letter that accused the Free University of violating its duty its students, the signatories were publicly condemned by the Minister of Education and pilloried in the right-wing tabloid, Bild, as “Tater”, the German word for “perpetrator”, which often carries an implied comparison with the Nazis. The SPD-led Coalition government is now proposing a new law to facilitate the expulsion of students on disciplinary grounds.

The spread of campus protests to Europe follows a wave of occupations and encampments across the US. Some of these have been highly successful, with some universities agreeing to divest from companies with links to Israel, or agreeing to take up student demands with bodies in charge of overseeing their investments.

In France, pro-Palestinian protests at the Sciences Po university and the Sorbonne last month were broken up by riot police. Police also broke up an encampment at Paris’s School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences after just 48 hours.

In the Netherlands, police broke up a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam, beating some of the protesters and pulling down tents. Campuses in Austria, Finland and Denmark have also seen protests.

Major universities in Italy have been affected. In Rome, Florence and several other cities, students are demanding a halt to the genocide in Gaza, that their universities publicly call for a ceasefire and oppose Israel’s invasion of Rafah and “disinvest and cut ties with any organization complicit in genocide.”

In Belgium, students have joined the growing European wave of protests, calling for an academic boycott at the Free University of Brussels, with similar initiatives in Ghent, Liège and Brussels francophone university.

In Spain, student protests in Barcelona, Valencia, the Basque Country and Madrid have won the support of over 2,000 academics. Spain recognises the state of Palestine and the protests have been wholly peaceful and partly an expression of solidarity with US students, whose camps have been violently attacked.

Poland is the latest country to join the European wave of protests. On May 24th, students,  academics and workers at the University of Warsaw began an occupational strike in the University’s Autonomy Park to highlight the university’s silence on the ongoing genocide in Gaza committed by Israel.

The activists are calling on the university to condemn Israel’s attack on Gaza and its occupation of Palestine. They are demanding the university break off all partnership agreements with Israeli universities, research centres, and other academic institutions, divest from Israeli companies profiting from the Gaza genocide and the occupation of Palestine, and make information about the university’s investments in Israeli companies publicly available.

Their statement says: “On the day we began our strike, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to immediately halt its offensive on Rafah, in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, citing ‘immense risk’ to the Palestinian population.

“To end Israel’s violations of international law, Palestinian civil society has called for an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. To protect the value of academic freedom, the boycott is not directed at individuals but at institutions in Israel that enable the violation of the rights of Palestinians.

All universities and 80% of schools have been destroyed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. Since October 7th, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed, and more than 7,819 students and 756 teachers have been injured. On April 18th, UN experts warned that these acts amount to “scholasticide” which aims to destroy the foundations of Palestinian society…

“We believe that today, the University is not living up to its values. With our demands, we call on the University to prove its commitment to being on the right side of history.

“Like the rest of the global student movement, our actions are strongly rooted in humanitarian values and empathy. We condemn all armed offenses against civilians, and we oppose and condemn all forms of racism and discrimination, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, all manifestations of violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse people.

“In particular, we see the need to create a space in Polish society for Jews, Arabs, non-Jews and non-Arabs, to learn from each other and heal together. Both Jews and Arabs have shared and still share the experience of racism in Poland. We feel it is therefore important that these communities feel safe and heard in the conversation about Palestine and Israel in this country. We aim to nurture this empathy, to invite all communities to come together in solidarity with Palestine, and find common footing in their oppression today.”