The same day that the anti-Israel protest encampments at universities in Brussels were cleared by police on Tuesday, a Jewish woman alleged that she had been threatened and pelted with objects by student activists.
The People’s University of Brussels group and Pro-Palestinian organizations alleged brutalities against their activists as police removed them from French-speaking Free University of Brussels’ Building B, which they had occupied since May 7 and renamed after deceased Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist Walid Daqqah.
Belgian pro-Palestinian groups shared a post on Instagram on Tuesday promising to continue with their activism, proclaiming “It is not an expulsion: It is the beginning of a movement!”
Calling for the destruction of Tel Aviv
Video of the raid posted by People’s University of Brussels and photographs published by the European Jewish Congress showed that the interior of the building had been defaced, with graffiti in multiple languages lining the walls. EJC claimed that some slogans on the wall called for Tel Aviv’s destruction.
“This is the sad result of a weak administration that has succumbed to the violence, hatred and blackmail of these wanna-be revolutionary students,” EJC Director of European Affairs Ariella Witchik said on X on Thursday in response to the vandalism. “It is a far cry from the values advocated by this university, which I once respected.”
The same day as the encampment’s clearing, Belgian League against Antisemitism President Joel Rubinfeld shared the claim of a Jewish woman who said that while walking her dog past the encampment she had received abuse from the student activists who allegedly called her “Jew” in Arabic and “dirty Bourgeois”. The activists were accused of throwing objects at her, resulting in a cut. She was also threatened, supposedly told “we are going to take off your head and your dog’s too”, and “you are going to pay for the others.”
Rubinfeld said that she reported the incident to the police.
Brussels Against Genocide accused Rubinfeld on Instagram on Thursday of misrepresenting the event, claiming that the woman had mocked and insulted the students who had not touched her. A video of the incident was published by the group depicting a hostile verbal exchange, with no physical clash.
After the encampment had been established, on May 8, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) issued a statement saying that it was open to dialogue. It touted its record of decrying both the October 7 Hamas massacre and the “disproportionate Israeli military reaction” as well as its adoption of motions calling for respect for international law, a call for a “just and lasting peace,” and condemned the alleged systematic destruction of Palestinian higher education facilities in Gaza.
The university also condemned any violence and antisemitism on campus and said that it was monitoring the situation.
The ULB encampment had held an “intifada festival” on June 23, proclaiming in advertisements “long live the resistance.” One of the groups that participated was Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which has long been accused of being an activism arm of the PFLP. Alleged PFLP leader and Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement founder Khaled Barakat gave a lecture to the group in mid-May. Another alleged PFLP operative, Samidoun European Coordinator Mohammed Khatib, on June 7 gave a lecture to the encampment of the nearby ULB Flemish sister university Vrij Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
The VUB encampment said on Wednesday that its protesters were also removed from their encampment by police. They also alleged that law enforcement had engaged in violence to expel the students.