Pro-Palestinian students set up new protest encampment in Berlin

Students have set up a new encampment on the grounds of the Free University of Berlin to protest of Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza.

Cecilia Mastrangeli, the student's spokesperson, told Anadolu on Friday that the encampment would serve as an "open space for critical conversation" about pressing issues affecting the world today.

"We have set up a protest camp to open up a critical space where people can exchange ideas about Europe's shift to the far-right, repression, and the genocide in Gaza," she said, adding that they wanted to also discuss the complicity of Western institutions in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

More than 50 students gathered at the camp on Friday, which was set up on the university's Dahlem campus. Over the course of a week, the organizers expect participation in the encampment's activities to be in the hundreds of students and lecturers.

Last month, German police forcibly cleared a pro-Palestinian student encampment set up by the students of the Free University of Berlin, a move that sparked fierce criticism from academics and student groups.

Officers used brutal force against the student demonstrators and arrested scores of them after the university administration called in local police to break up the encampment.