WEGA in action

Police break up Palestine protest camp in front of TU Vienna

WEGA was deployed and also had to climb a tree.(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

A "protest camp for Palestine" set up just a few hours earlier in Vienna was broken up by the police on Wednesday afternoon - partly because of radical anti-Israel slogans. Activists had set up a tent camp in front of the Technical University and hung up banners to protest against the "genocide" in Gaza.

According to the police, it was an "undeclared assembly". In the course of the dispersal, 16 provisional arrests were made as people chained themselves together and one person climbed a tree. The activists had previously been given ten minutes to disperse. The detainees were taken to a police detention center. Charges will be brought in accordance with the provisions of the Assembly Act. 

The special police unit WEGA, the police riot unit and the Margareten municipal police command were involved in the operation. The State Office for State Protection and Counter-Extremism was informed about the incident, which was reported to the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office.

Leaflets with anti-Israeli content
The protest camp was banned due to the considerable disruption to public order and the threatening nature of the radical statements made by the assembly participants, the police said. Leaflets and slogans with relevant anti-Israeli content, which were not in line with Austrian law, had been distributed and chanted. Around 10 a.m., around 30 to 35 people had gathered in front of TU Wien on Karlsplatz. By midday, there were only a handful of activists left.

One person was pulled from a tree by police.(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The camp was set up by almost 100 activists and students "in the context of the genocide that has been going on for almost eight months", according to a statement from the small party SÖZ (Social Austria of the Future). This refers to the war that Israel is waging against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Security removed banner
The activists had actively reported on their camp on Instagram. Even before the dispersal, photos and videos were posted of police officers saying that they were being "intimidated". One video also showed TU Wien security guards cutting down a banner. TU Wien did not issue a statement.

Several tents were erected and posters were put up.(Bild: Instagram/camp4palestine_vienna)

Police officers in front of TU Wien shortly before the eviction(Bild: Instagram/camp4palestine_vienna)

The SÖZ emphasized that they had only offered the students the platform, but that the content came from the students themselves and was not connected to the party.

Criticism of cooperation with Israeli research institution
In the statement, the organizers of the protest camp criticized the "complicity of the TU", particularly in the cooperation with the Israel Institute of Technology (TECHNION).

"TECHNION is a cornerstone of the Israeli military industry and promotes research into Israeli military projects such as Elbit Systems. With this cooperation, TU Wien is directly complicit in the genocide that the Israeli military is committing against the Palestinians," the press release stated. The organizers also criticized the TU Vienna's cooperation with weapons manufacturers such as Rheinmetall and Glock.

A pro-Palestine protest camp on the campus of the University of Vienna was cleared by the police in May.