Schriftelijke bijdrage Johanna Haberkorn

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, On May 8th I attended the protests demanding the Universiteit van Amsterdam to cut ties with Israeli universities as part of the academic boycott. The incident I witnessed took place on said day at around 6:30/6:45pm in a small street on the left of the ‘diamond factory’ across the small river by Rokin. This was before the police pushed the protestors more onto the big street where the situation became more tense later and many more people joined. At the described time, around 30-50 people, I estimate, were standing on a small bridge leading to the diamond factory. On the left, there was a small alley that the police had blocked off to keep protestors away from the campus occupation in the city center. The protestors that I was part of at this point had no intention to make their way to the occupation. At one point, my friends and I were facing a wall of police forces that were standing across from us with their protection uniform, helmets, batons and shields. The atmosphere was emotional but in no way aggressive or overly tense. No one felt like one side provoked the other. Eventually, the police made a joint move to push the protestors more out onto the big street by Rokin, using their shields. Everything was fine and this was the reaction everyone expected from the police. Firm and using a justified amount of force, but deescalating.

They brought out their barking dogs and at this point I moved a bit to the right side so I was not directly facing the police officers but could see what was going on from the side and watching my friends. Two of my friends were directly facing the police. Then, out of nowhere, a group of ~10 men dressed in just skinny jeans, a black jacket and a black mask appeared behind the police in the alley that they had closed off. No one said anything and within ~1 minute after their appearance they just launched themselves into the crowd. They intentionally beat and kicked random people using extreme force against the unprepared protestors. People started screaming and dispersing a little bit and the uniformed officers went AFTER them to beat them with their batons. I also distanced myself a bit further to the side but still to the point where I had a sufficient view. What I saw was that the ME went to grab my friend that had been facing the police previously and started to pull him towards the police wall. He tried to get away but they just took him while another ME person was randomly kicking people next to him. After they pulled him behind the police wall the officers sort of ‘closed’ the wall again so no one could go to him and so he could not go back. After that, he was arrested or at least taken by the police.

In no way was this person previously a threat to the police or any security forces in this area. The mentioned group of protestors was assembling there peacefully. I have a video of the exact moment the police attacked us and you can clearly see that the crowd was simply facing the police, demanding justice for Palestine without even moving or pushing the police. After they took him the police tried to push the people further out onto the big street, which they achieved. People were screaming and running from the police while trying to get away from the ME. To finish my statement, I want to say that I know what I saw and it was shocking. My friends and I are students and we never had the intention in any way to get in trouble with the police. Their behavior was unjustified and extremely violent. It is outrageous and this is the reason why people are becoming angry and why protests are becoming more tense and violent. We know that the media and the officials will try to blame this on us but like I said, I know what I saw. I was there and I have a video of the moment I just described.

Thank you, Johanna Haberkorn