Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Hundreds gathered in front of the Israeli embassy in the municipality of Oakley in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The police dispersed the demonstration using water cannons and tear gas. A police officer hit a protester in the face with his baton. According to Makert, the Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad added
The demonstrators demanded “an end to the Holocaust in Gaza” and called for Belgian and European sanctions on Israel. The demonstration was widely advertised on social media. Police first used water cannons and then tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. A girl had to be taken to Hospital after her injury.
The demonstrator is Vera Sofia, an activist in the Palestine Solidarity Network at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). As a result of “unauthorized violence and repression by the police,” the student had to undergo surgery on her eyes after water jets from a water cannon hit her completely in the face and she was no longer able to see. “My face was completely swollen.” After the operation, the VUB student will file a complaint about police brutality.