Photos on Instagram show several tents and Palestinian flags on the University of Vienna campus at the old general hospital. Police are on the spot and investigating possible actions.
Activists set up a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the campus of the University of Vienna in the Old General Hospital. Photos of the organization “Palestinian Solidarity Camp Vienna” on Instagram show several tents and Palestinian flags on the grass in the 1 yard of the complex. This is probably modeled after the protest camps at American universities.
Activists demand that “all universities and research institutes in Austria immediately stop their research cooperation and funding programs with the European Defense Fund and arms manufacturers.” The defense research program should also be disbanded. “We will remain until our demands are heard,” it said.
Police are already on site. “It was a spontaneous rally with about 100 participants,” spokesman Markus Dittrich tells “Press.” Participants pitched tents and put up banners. It appears to be a pro-Palestine rally. A representative of the authorities is now examining possible measures within the meaning of the Assembly Act. “Every variation is imaginative,” Dittrich says.
Polaschek: “No tolerance for anti-Israel attitudes”
Research Minister Martin Polashek strongly condemns pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Vienna: “Academic freedom applies in our country, but we cannot tolerate any kind of extremist and anti-Israel attitudes,” he says. It is clear that each individual case of anti-Semitism and extremism is unacceptable and must be pursued with full consequences.
In the US, police cleared a protest camp at Columbia University in New York last Tuesday. 300 people were arrested. Palestinian supporters had earlier occupied a university building. In solidarity with the students in New York, smaller protests took place at universities around the world. Just Monday, Paris police cleared a protest camp in front of the elite Sciences Po University. About 80 people were fired. According to officials, everything was calm.