Students call for new protest outside Israeli embassy after police crackdown

Brussels students have called for another large-scale protest at the Israeli embassy in Uccle on Wednesday evening after a protest on Tuesday was met with a heavy police response.

Students from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) said they were shocked by "the police violence and repression at the Zionist embassy" on Tuesday. Wednesday's response protest is scheduled to start at 18.00.

Several hundred people gathered outside the embassy on Tuesday afternoon to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Police responded to the protest with batons, water cannon and tear gas.

A paramedic unit was dispatched to the scene to attend to a protestor who had fainted. Vera Sophia, a student at VUB, had to undergo surgery on Wednesday morning after being hit in the face by water cannon.

"My face was completely swollen. Bystanders took me away and called an ambulance," she said, adding that she intends to file a complaint.

The crowd had gathered outside the embassy at around 18:00 on Tuesday, calling for an immediate ceasefire and for sanctions to be imposed on Israel by both Belgium and the European Union.

The mayor of Uccle, Boris Dilliès, said the response was due to the fact that "the demonstration was unauthorised and therefore illegal". Attempts were initially made to defuse the situation by asking the demonstrators to leave, but they refused, he said.

^{© BELGA PHOTO LOU LAMPAERT}