Univ. Amsterdam pressing charges over "wanted" posters accusing board of Gaza genocide
In several locations at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Science Park, activists hung posters accusing the three members of the executive board of complicity in genocide in Gaza. They also shared the posters online. The university is pressing charges, a spokesperson told the student newspaper Folia.
The posters have photos of Edith Hooge, Jan Linsten, and Peter-Paul Verbeek, with the text “Wanted for complicity in genocide.” The posters also state, “They are the face. The institution is a crime. During a genocide, they give our dime.”
The posters were also shared by the Instagram account UvA Intifada. The organization describes itself as a “youth-led student organization” fighting for “an academic boycott at the University of Amsterdam in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance movement.”
On Instagram, UvA Intifada also provides a script students can use to protest the UvA’s continued ties with Israeli institutions. They also provide a telephone number and the UvA secretary’s email address where students can lodge their protest.
A UvA spokesperson called the action “a new low,” speaking to the UvA student news outlet, Folia. “We will file charges as soon as possible.”
Students at Dutch universities have been calling for their institutions to break ties with Israeli institutions almost since the outbreak of the war on 7 October 2023, prompted by a Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Protests at several universities escalated into vandalism and violence, especially at the UvA.
As of February 3, two weeks after the recently broken ceasefire took effect, Israeli attacks have killed 61,709 people, including 17,492 children, in Gaza. Over 111,588 people are injured and more than 14,222 are missing and presumed dead, Al Jazeera reported based on figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In Israel, the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 killed 1,139 people and left 8,730 injured.
