University of Geneva students lament police storming of pro-Palestinian protest encampment

By Muhammet Ikbal Arslan

GENEVA (AA) - Students of the University of Geneva expressed sorrow over the police storming of a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on Tuesday.

At around 5.00 a.m. (0300GMT), police arrived at the campus where the protests started last week, according to the Swiss daily Le Temps, storming the pro-Palestinian protest encampment and dispersing the protesting students.

Cleaning work started in the building after police broke up the protest camp.

Amira, a Moroccan student, told Anadolu that there were 25 policemen disguised as civilians, with masks on their faces.

Most of the students who were handcuffed and arrested are now released, she said, and expressed her frustration over her peers being handcuffed like “criminals.”

“We have a peaceful occupation. We did not do anything, we did not choose any violence, or any discrimination, or any hate. And they were handcuffed like criminal. This is not fair, this is not good, we are students,” Amira stressed.

Ali, another Moroccan student, criticized the way students were arrested.

“This was a peaceful movement, a peaceful mobilization, there was no way of like trying to be violent or some stuff like that, not at all, it was a peaceful movement for the liberation of Palestine,” he said.

The students started protesting to show support for Gaza, and to ask the university management to take a clear stance regarding the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and end all relations with Israeli institutions and universities.

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 35,100 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and 78,400 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.