A group of students from the Technical University of Dortmund denounced the intervention of the German police last Tuesday to dismantle a student camp in solidarity with Palestine on the university campus, criticizing the intimidation suffered and the accusations of extremism relayed by some German media.
According to information from Hespress, students of Arab and foreign nationalities had set up, on June 6, a camp in support of the Palestinian cause on the campus of the University of Dortmund, with the authorization of the security authorities, with the aim of to raise awareness in the academic community of the suffering of the Palestinian people in the face of Israel’s crimes.
After deciding to invite Greta Thunberg, a Swedish activist and supporter of the Palestinian cause, who recently criticized what she described as “German complicity in the genocide in Gaza”, the authorities asked the organizers to dismantle the camp under the pretext that the presence of this activist represented a “threat” and risked provoking anti-Semitic acts.
The students concerned condemned this attack on their right to expression and peaceful demonstration, deeming the German police’s assessment of the Swedish activist’s arrival “unacceptable”, and expressing surprise at the campaign aimed at demonizing them and to intimidate them with accusations of extremism and anti-Semitism. They said they intended to take the case to court to challenge the police’s decision to disband the camp.
Haajar, a Moroccan student at the University of Dortmund and one of the organizers of this event of solidarity with the Palestinian cause, told Hespress: “For months, this camp has been organizing daily workshops and exhibitions to raise awareness of the Palestinian cause and highlight what the Palestinian people in Gaza are currently experiencing due to the occupation.” She stressed that “students of different nationalities, including Moroccans and Algerians, participated in this initiative.”
She added that “the dissolution of this sit-in by the German police was not violent, but it constitutes an abuse of power”, noting that “the main reason for the police intervention lies in the positions of the climate activist Swedish Greta Thunberg, once highly respected in Germany, but now ostracized and considered an anti-Semitic threat by German authorities because of her support for the Palestinian cause.”
The Moroccan student from the Technical University of Dortmund confirmed that “the student organizers of this solidarity camp will take legal action to challenge the decision of the German police,” adding that “the justifications put forward by the authorities for dismantling the camp have conveyed a distorted and harmful image of the students in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, who now face waves of intimidation and accusations of extremism and anti-Semitism.”
