Rector calls in police to remove pro-Palestine protesters at University of Warsaw

Police have physically removed pro-Palestinian protesters who had begun to occupy part of the University of Warsaw (UW). The officers say they were called in by the university’s rector.

🔴 Rektor @UniWarszawski wezwał policję do interwencji przeciw studentom wspierającym Palestynę. Funkcjonariusze obserwują demontaż barykad przez straż UW, protestujący wycofali się do namiotów.

🎥 Na miejscu jest @tupiasecki pic.twitter.com/qunWMEXq64

— PolskieRadio24.pl (@PR24_pl) June 12, 2024

The protest began on 24 May, with participants expressing solidarity with Palestine and demanding that UW provide information on what links it has with Israeli academic institutions and “other organisations that profit from or are associated with the occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

They called on the university to terminate cooperation with any such institutions and organisations as well as to issue a condemnation of Israel’s actions.

Initially, the protest was located in a park next to the university. But yesterday it moved onto the main campus, where they began blocking some entrances. In response, UW issued a statement describing this development as “unacceptable”.

“Everyone has the right to protest and that is respected by the university authorities,” it wrote. “But you cannot protest in a way that violates other people’s rights.”

Blokada bram UW dla Palestyny. Mimo realizacji części postulatów studenci eskalowali protest. Podobne akcje dzieją się na innych polskich uczelniach 🔽

Źródło: @TuPiasecki/@PolskieRadio24 pic.twitter.com/DH6ah5wJBx

— PolskieRadio24.pl (@PR24_pl) June 11, 2024

The university accused the protesters of preventing staff and students from accessing buildings and of “throwing yourselves in front of an approaching vehicle and onto its hood to prevent it from leaving the university premises”.

“The University of Warsaw will do everything to ensure safety and restore the normal functioning of the university,” it added.

This morning, police officers arrived and began to physically remove students from the university grounds. A police spokesman, Robert Szumiata, said that the “rector asked us to unblock the traffic routes”.

A group of MPs from the left-wing Together (Razem) party arrived to express support for the students. “The university authorities sending the police against peacefully protesting students is unacceptable,” one of them, Adrian Zandberg, wrote on social media.

🔴JESTEŚMY A MIEJSCU | Posłowie @__Lewica interweniują na @UniWarszawski po tym jak rektor wezwał policję przeciw protestującym studentom.

📸 fot. @TuPiasecki /IAR pic.twitter.com/rRHYd7Esh1

— PolskieRadio24.pl (@PR24_pl) June 12, 2024

Separately, a similar sit-in protest by supporters of Palestine has been taking place at the Jagiellonian University in the city of Kraków.

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Main image credit: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborcza

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.