The occupation of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Lisbon, in an act of protest to demand the “end of the genocide” of the Palestinian people and the “end of fossil fuel”, ended on Thursday night with the entry of the Public Security Police and the detention of eight students.
The police arrived at the college at 10pm, the time when the students were having dinner inside the building, following a request for intervention and removal from the rectory of the University of Lisbon, the management of the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute of Education.
For more than an hour, dozens of people demonstrated peacefully outside the college, while holding banners reading “End the fossil, end the genocide” and “From Lisbon to Rafah, Palestine will win”.
When the detained students were removed from the building, “people mobilized to the side gates of the college to prevent the police vans from leaving and support the detained students.” “The police attacked the protesters with batons, pushed them and dragged them”, denounces the protest organization.
The students, who had been camping at the Faculty of Psychology since Tuesday, May 7, met with the management of the same institution on the first day of the protest and received the guarantee that they could stay overnight in the building, as long as academic activities were not disturbed — an agreement that was fulfilled by the students, with no classes being interrupted or disturbed.
The rectory of the University of Lisbon claimed, in a statement cited by Expressthat an initially legitimate protest began to generate “worrying situations of destruction of property, graffiti and threat to security through the elimination and breaking of locks”, in addition to an “increased concern” among students regarding possible “interruptions of planned activities “, however not implemented.
“Faced with this situation, the rector of the University of Lisbon and the directors of the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute of Education requested intervention from the authorities, in order to restore the security of goods, equipment and people in their institutions”, reads the same statement.
Meanwhile, a vigil was called outside the college, where several people decided to spend the night in the early hours of this Friday, while the eight young people detained spent the night in the police facilities. The students also left a promise that they will return to college.
“As long as the genocide in Palestine and the fossil system, which condemns us all, continues, we will resist”, says Catarina Bio, one of the spokespeople for the student demonstration.
