Mayor annoyed by Amsterdam University's communication during pro-Palestine barricades
Mayor Femke Halsema was annoyed and sometimes fully angry about how the University of Amsterdam communicated with the authorities during occupations and barricades by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in May. She had to repeatedly call the university to find out what was going on and what it wanted to do, resulting in the authorities having to intervene with little warning or time to prepare, AT5 reports based on chat communications obtained through an appeal to the Open Government Act.
Riot police cleared protesters off the Roeterseiland during the early hours of May 7. Partly as a result, there was another protest on the Roeterseiland later that day, after which demonstrators marched through the campus. The police and municipality had no idea what the demonstrators intended - officers could get no answer out of them. At around 6:20 p.m., then-police chief Frank Pauw reported that protesters kicked in a door on Binnegasthuistraat. “We are now checking whether they are inside, in which case, we will take immediate action,” he said in a message on Signal.
Halsema urged him to wait. “As far as I am concerned, there must be a clear request from the UvA for that. I think it is wise to continue to adhere to the principle that [UvA] is responsible first,” Halsema wrote to Pauw in the Signal group consisting of the Amsterdam authorities.
An hour later, Halsema messaged that she had spoken to Geert ten Dam from the UvA, who said they were in consultation and would let her know how to proceed within 30 minutes. “It is also clear to them that they should be in the lead and they are now leaning towards de-escalation and setting up an action center on the spot.”
After 90 minutes of hearing nothing, Halsema called the UvA again. “I have given them an ultimatum of 15 minutes.” The UvA ultimately decided not to ask for help. “No charges and no request for assistance yet. Therefore no grounds to take action,” the authorities concluded after their meeting at 9:00 p.m. “As time goes by and it gets later in the evening, it also becomes more difficult to intervene, both in terms of preparation and capacity.”
At 7:45 a.m. the next morning, Pauw reported that the situation had remained calm around the building overnight. He started preparing for an evacuation at 2:00 p.m. - riot police from other parts of the country were needed to help and needed time to get there. Around 1:00 p.m., it became clear that the UvA negotiations with activists had failed and the university filed a report. For the rest of the day, the authorities did not communicate on Signal, only verbally. After midnight, Pauw reported that only a small group of demonstrators remained and they were winding down.
Later that night, Halsema wrote in the group that she sent an “angry message” to the UvA about their poor communication skills. In it she wrote that she hoped, in the future, the UvA would inform the authorities in time about what line it wanted to follow. “I have spent too much time trying to get hold of you and to get clarity about your views. For example, I had to read in the newspaper at the end of the morning that you were going to have a second conversation with students.”
According to the mayor, the UvA had told the authorities that it intended to press charges and ask the police to evacuate the building after the first failed conversation. “Due to the new conversation, which was unknown to us, we were placed in the impossible position of having to operate without clarity from the UvA and having to continue until late at night.” She also had to call them after the second, surprise conversation to get clarity about what was going on.
“We have now operated ad hoc and quickly (with a minimum number of people, and therefore great risks for them: an officer was sprayed with ammonia. I really do not want to see a repeat of that,” Halsema wrote to the university board.
On Sunday, the police published a report about the demonstrations. They concluded that there were only two cases in which riot police used too much violence against demonstrators - once, a cop pushed a demonstrator to the ground after the demonstrator allegedly insulted him, and the other time, the cop hit the demonstrator too many times. In both cases, colleagues corrected the cops in question, the police said.
