The Hungarian President justifies his conversations with university occupants.
The administration at Humboldt University prefers to communicate with pro-Palestinian student squatters, as long as the local government in Berlin doesn't demand them to be removed. HU's President, Julia von Blumenthal, explains her approach of persuading the students to vacate the premises.
Von Blumenthal explained on RBB-Inforadio that Humboldt University had reached its limit on tolerance. She said, "We were trying to figure out if we could continue a dialogue with the students, looking at the situation. We managed to have talks with one of the two groups and reached some understanding, like not allowing any more graffiti."
However, on Thursday, the decision was made from "above" to use the police to clear the occupied university premises after a day of protest. "We were in a dialogue in that situation and felt we needed more time to see if we could reach a resolution that way. We wanted to end the dialogue ourselves. Therefore, we had to terminate it prematurely."
The pro-Palestinian activists took over Humboldt University on Wednesday in a demonstration against Israel and to support the Palestinians. The university administration initially endured the takeover and aimed for a conversation with the occupiers and lecturers. By Thursday evening, the police had cleared the building that was based on the direction of Berlin's Science Senator Ina Czyborra from the SPD, in coordination with the Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner.
The CDU and SPD criticized the temporary accommodation of the occupation. "There was always the possibility of forcing them out," explained von Blumenthal during the RBB interview. "It was obvious that we had given the squatters an ultimatum. We would have requested them to leave after that deadline. If they didn't leave on their own, we would have evicted them as well." "Of course, we would have," said von Blumenthal. "We wouldn't have allowed this occupation to extend beyond that evening."
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Source: www.ntv.de
