Student protests - Students end protest camp at FU
Students at the Free University Berlin are dismantling their tents in the protest camp. The university leadership has not reacted to the protests and demands for "a free university and a free Palestine" from the camp participants, so they have decided to dismantle their tents after 19 days, they announced at a closing press conference. Afterwards, they marched demonstratively towards the presidium to deliver their demands.
Among the demands were an "end to genocide, apartheid, and occupation in Palestine", a stop to arms deliveries and a ceasefire, the revision of the IHRA Antisemitism Definition, the withdrawal of the intensification of the Higher Education Act, no police on campus, and the renaming of the Henry Ford Building to the Esther Bejarano Building. Esther Bejarano was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The camp was set up on June 20, according to the organizers, on the initiative of student groups of the Palestine Committee. The goal was to create a space for critical discussions about the "genocide in Gaza and repression against student protests". This has been successful. However, the university did not comply with the request for a public dialogue. The possibilities of the camp have been exhausted, and now positions should be given more consideration through the demo and the delivery of demands to the presidium, it was stated.
According to the police, there have been no incidents since the establishment of the camp.
- Despite the students' demonstrative march towards the presidium with their demands for a "free university and a free Palestine", the Free University of Berlin's leadership has yet to respond.
- In the wake of the protest camp's dismantling, there are plans for a continuing demonstration to deliver their demands, including an end to war and occupation in Palestine.
- The FU Berlin protest camp, established by student groups of the Palestine Committee over 19 days, featured discussions on the "genocide in Gaza and repression against student protests," but the university refused to engage in a public dialogue.
- The students' demands at the Free University of Berlin's presidium included the renaming of the Henry Ford Building to the Esther Bejarano Building, honoring the Holocaust survivor and activist against antisemitism.
- The police in Berlin have reported no incidents or disturbances during the entire duration of the Palestine protest camp at the Free University of Berlin.
