Dutch Student Union opens hotline after reports of police violence at campus protests
The Dutch National Student Union (LSVb) has launched an anonymous reporting center for students who say they have experienced police violence during campus demonstrations, citing what it calls an escalating pattern of abuse and growing fear among students, Trouw reports.
“We see that the number of violent incidents is escalating,” LSVb chair Abdelkader Karbache told the newspaper. “More and more students are reporting that they no longer feel safe during or after a demonstration.”
The hotline was launched Thursday to collect reports from students who have encountered violence by police or campus security staff while protesting. The student union says the move is a direct response to a series of incidents in recent weeks at Dutch universities.
On Tuesday, students demonstrating peacefully outside a building of Leiden University in The Hague were allegedly beaten so severely by police that 20 were injured, according to student newspaper Mare. Five students reportedly lost consciousness during the confrontation.
The next day, students from Radboud University in Nijmegen staged a protest at the university’s administration building. That protest was broken up after 14 police vehicles arrived at the request of university leadership. Although demonstrators left the site peacefully, the student union says officers still took action against the students. According to a spokesperson for the demonstrators, a police dog bit one student so severely that surgery was required the same evening.
Karbache said universities have a duty to protect their students and should engage with their concerns instead of involving law enforcement. “It should not be the case that you would rather see your own students end up in the hospital than enter into a conversation with them about ties to institutions in, for example, Israel,” he told Trouw.
“When students speak out, they deserve to be heard—not met with batons or police dogs,” the LSVb said.
The student union is calling on university and college administrators across the Netherlands to stop relying on police to handle peaceful student protests. The LSVb argues that the presence of law enforcement at demonstrations often leads to violence and intimidation.
According to the union, students increasingly report feeling unsafe to express political views. “We are hearing a lot from students—about being profiled because of clothing that is deemed too activist, about student unions being surveilled, and about the continuous police presence at student protests, which often ends in violence,” the LSVb said in a statement.
