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Anti-Israel protests cost Amsterdam U $4.4m in damages

Earlier estimates of the price tag of “campus occupation” spoke of $1.7 million

University of Amsterdam
Anti-Israel rioters close in on a Jewish man at the University of Amsterdam on May 6, 2024. Credit: Courtesy.

Anti-Israel protesters who occupied and vandalized the University of Amsterdam earlier this year caused about $4.4 million in damages, a Dutch news site reported on Wednesday.

Protesters caused the defacement, initially estimated at $1.7 million, in May, according to the GeenStijl news site. It occurred around campus, where anti-Israel activists occupied facilities and public spaces for days.

There were also several riots at the university at around that time. One of them produced images that shocked the Jewish world, showing men wearing keffiyehs covering their faces and wielding wooden planks, using them to forcefully hit Jewish students who were staging a small counterprotest on campus.

According to the school’s financial report, the damage will come out of the University of Amsterdam’s 2024 budget, which is about €970 million ($1 billion). According to GeenStijl, most of the damage is due to delays in the construction of a library. But more than $1 million in damage was caused by vandalism of university property, including the exterior of campus buildings.

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