Aşkın Kıyağan
30 May 2024•Update: 30 May 2024
VIENNA
Austrian police detained 16 students who set up tents in front of the Vienna University of Technology in support of Palestine.
The protest was in response to Israel's onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which has been under continuous assault for nearly eight months.
The intervention occurred when students, expressing their opposition to the prolonged conflict in Gaza, established a campsite in a park in front of the school.
The protest was to draw attention to the situation in Gaza and urge the school to sever ties with the Israel Institute of Technology.
Vienna State Police issued a statement that said the demonstration was not registered and had the potential to disrupt public order. Police also cited the use of the banned "Intifada" slogan as a reason for the intervention.
The statement noted that officers ordered demonstrators to disperse. When some refused to comply, 16 were taken into custody and transported to a police station for further processing.
Protesting students claimed in a statement that the protest was their second campus action in response to what they termed as the "genocide" in Gaza.
They emphasized that the school's collaboration with the Israel Institute of Technology, which contributes to Israel's defense industry, was the reason behind their protest.
The students urged an end to joint projects between the schools.
More than 36,170 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in response from Israel to an attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas. The vast majority of deaths have been women and children, and over 81,400 others injured, according to Gaza health authorities.
Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
