State repression of Greece’s student protests for Palestine
By Migrants Solidarity, Athens
On May 13, students in Athens joined the global movement of the student intifada in solidarity with Palestine and occupied the Athens Law School. They demanded that Greek universities stop all cooperation in the form of research projects or exchange and funding programmes with the Israeli state. The next morning, police raided the occupied space and arrested 28 people. They confiscated a number of items from the grounds of the university, with no existing evidence to relate these items to any of the arrested individuals.
After the finalisation of the law enabling Greek police presence within the university campuses last year, there were unleashed waves of violence against students on their own campuses, while this year has seen a fast-tracked path to the privatisation of universities. Increased police presence and intimidation tactics in once free and autonomous spaces extend beyond the university walls. Events, activities and collective gatherings in public spaces – whether political or not – are targeted by police repression and violence. The state’s aggressive stance is an attempt to quash any form of anti-capitalist solidarity with migrants in support of free movement.
The 28 arrested in the Athens Law School were immediately transferred to the central police station (the Gada). Lawyers were only allowed access to them eight hours after their detainment, with the police attempting to force detainees to provide fingerprints prior to the arrival of their lawyers. In the meanwhile, hundreds of solidarians gathered in front of the Gada, demanding the immediate release of those arrested, while affirming their support for a free Palestine.
The following day, solidarians were present at the court to show their support for those arrested, with chants for a free Palestine and an end to the intimidation tactics. Finally, the 28 were released and the hearing postponed until May 28 of those accused of vandalism, disruption of the public order, refusal to cooperate with police procedures and possession of “weapons”. In spite of the decision to release all detainees, the state security department registered the nine non-Greek international comrades as “unwanted” and decided to continue their detention. Their lawyers were then informed that a deportation order would be issued – an unprecedented development for European citizens.
Administrative detention and deportations are part of the strategy that the Greek state practises as one of the deeply racist components of the murderous Fortress Europe. The state’s blatant racism is evident in the massive number of arrests, detentions, torture and deportations that happen on a daily basis – and mostly go unnoticed by society.
The brazenness with which the Greek state acts is also explained by years of enacting a deadly border policy against refugees, migrants and undocumented people. There are four grounds for administrative deportation, which give the police complete freedom to judge whether a person is a threat to public order, and people can be detained without trial and deported. The detention and threatened deportation of the nine detainees – from Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Britain – is a new application of these repressive orders targeting the solidarity movement with Palestine.
The technology used by the Greek state in its violent and deadly pushbacks of asylum-seekers rely on research and technologies of containment, surveillance and control that the Israeli state tests on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Opposition to the Israeli state, its military occupation of Palestine and the wars it wages in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, is a ‘threat’ to the EU and to Greece’s military border security complex.
The rightwing media released information about the detention and deportation of the nine individuals before any of them or their lawyers were informed – a move that underscores the state’s use of the media as a tool for psychological warfare.
Migrants and those without papers who exercise their right to free speech by being politically active, are now under increased risk of deportation and other legal action. This is exemplified in the case of our Egyptian comrade who, having attended pro-Palestine demonstrations, has been threatened with deportation by the Egyptian embassy. Governments and media outlets collaborate to criminalise and delegitimise efforts to support the Palestinian struggle, portraying individuals as a threat to national security.
These actions reveal the state’s desperation to maintain control and suppress resistance. It underscores the need for alternative media and solidarity networks to counteract these intimidation tactics. By standing in solidarity with those targeted, we can expose the state’s oppressive mechanisms and continue the struggle for true liberation – for Palestinians and those incarcerated. There is a need to escalate our solidarity, to say clearly and loudly that neither intimidation nor imprisonment and deportation will stop the struggle. Resistance will never die, Palestine will never die!
We demand:
- The immediate release of the nine international detainees.
- No to their deportation.
- The abolition of administrative detention for all migrants and asylum-seekers.
- This article was originally published by Migrants Solidarity, Athens.
Students from across Europe join wave of Gaza demonstrations and protest action
By Labour Hub
Student protests against Israel’s genocidal bombardment and starvation of Gaza are spreading across Europe.
In Germany, thousands of students have mobilised in support of Palestine, leading demonstrations, organising lectures and sit-ins occupying university buildings and campus lawns. They have faced hostile media coverage, repressive legal measures taken by universities and politicians, and police violence.
Students who occupied the department of social sciences at Berlin’s Humboldt University were evicted by police, with 25 charged with suspicion of committing criminal acts. The occupation followed the dismantling of an encampment at Berlin’s Free University earlier this month, with officers punching, choking and kicking peaceful protesters without provocation, while they made 79 arrests.
After more than 300 lecturers from Berlin universities signed an open letter that accused the Free University of violating its duty its students, the signatories were publicly condemned by the Minister of Education and pilloried in the right-wing tabloid, Bild, as “Tater”, the German word for “perpetrator”, which often carries an implied comparison with the Nazis. The SPD-led Coalition government is now proposing a new law to facilitate the expulsion of students on disciplinary grounds.
The spread of campus protests to Europe follows a wave of occupations and encampments across the US. Some of these have been highly successful, with some universities agreeing to divest from companies with links to Israel, or agreeing to take up student demands with bodies in charge of overseeing their investments.
In France, pro-Palestinian protests at the Sciences Po university and the Sorbonne last month were broken up by riot police. Police also broke up an encampment at Paris’s School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences after just 48 hours.
In the Netherlands, police broke up a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Amsterdam, beating some of the protesters and pulling down tents. Campuses in Austria, Finland and Denmark have also seen protests.
Major universities in Italy have been affected. In Rome, Florence and several other cities, students are demanding a halt to the genocide in Gaza, that their universities publicly call for a ceasefire and oppose Israel’s invasion of Rafah and “disinvest and cut ties with any organization complicit in genocide.”
In Belgium, students have joined the growing European wave of protests, calling for an academic boycott at the Free University of Brussels, with similar initiatives in Ghent, Liège and Brussels francophone university.
In Spain, student protests in Barcelona, Valencia, the Basque Country and Madrid have won the support of over 2,000 academics. Spain recognises the state of Palestine and the protests have been wholly peaceful and partly an expression of solidarity with US students, whose camps have been violently attacked.
Poland is the latest country to join the European wave of protests. On May 24th, students, academics and workers at the University of Warsaw began an occupational strike in the University’s Autonomy Park to highlight the university’s silence on the ongoing genocide in Gaza committed by Israel.
The activists are calling on the university to condemn Israel’s attack on Gaza and its occupation of Palestine. They are demanding the university break off all partnership agreements with Israeli universities, research centres, and other academic institutions, divest from Israeli companies profiting from the Gaza genocide and the occupation of Palestine, and make information about the university’s investments in Israeli companies publicly available.
Their statement says: “On the day we began our strike, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to immediately halt its offensive on Rafah, in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, citing ‘immense risk’ to the Palestinian population.
“To end Israel’s violations of international law, Palestinian civil society has called for an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. To protect the value of academic freedom, the boycott is not directed at individuals but at institutions in Israel that enable the violation of the rights of Palestinians.
All universities and 80% of schools have been destroyed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. Since October 7th, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed, and more than 7,819 students and 756 teachers have been injured. On April 18th, UN experts warned that these acts amount to “scholasticide” which aims to destroy the foundations of Palestinian society…
“We believe that today, the University is not living up to its values. With our demands, we call on the University to prove its commitment to being on the right side of history.
“Like the rest of the global student movement, our actions are strongly rooted in humanitarian values and empathy. We condemn all armed offenses against civilians, and we oppose and condemn all forms of racism and discrimination, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, all manifestations of violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse people.
“In particular, we see the need to create a space in Polish society for Jews, Arabs, non-Jews and non-Arabs, to learn from each other and heal together. Both Jews and Arabs have shared and still share the experience of racism in Poland. We feel it is therefore important that these communities feel safe and heard in the conversation about Palestine and Israel in this country. We aim to nurture this empathy, to invite all communities to come together in solidarity with Palestine, and find common footing in their oppression today.”
- This article was originally published by Labour Hub on May 26th, 2024.
