Police break up pro-Palestine demonstration on Belgian university campus

By Selen Valente Rasquinho

BRUSSELS (AA) - Belgian police removed students from the campus of the Free University of Brussels who have been staging a sit-in in support of Palestine for the last month-and-a-half, local media said on Tuesday.

The student protest, which has been ongoing since May 7, was met with police intervention at 6.30 a.m. local time (0430GMT), according to Belgium's official news agency Belga.

The protest ended after the police took down all tents and banners and forced the students out.

The university administration announced on May 28, at the request of the students, that it was suspending all academic relations with Israel until it complies with the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

But last week Rector Annemie Schaus said the protest had overstepped its purpose and demanded that the area be evacuated immediately.

Students posted messages on social media about the police stepping in.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

More than 37,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 86,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Merve Berker