Windows smashed and façade defaced

Pro-Palestinian activists behind attack on Administration Building

Bestuursgebouw-beklad-foto DUB

A group of anonymous activists is responsible for defacing the Administration Building of Utrecht University and smashing several windows. This is according to an email sent by Palestine Action Netherlands to the editorial team of DUB.

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By , ,
on 06/17/2026 - 16:38
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The email states that this is believed to be the same group of anonymous activists who, in June last year, daubed the building with red paint and smashed windows. This happened then and has happened again now because Utrecht University still has ten research projects with Israeli partners underway.

Palestine Action NL’s Instagram account features a video of last night’s action. The nature of the relationship between the activists and Palestine Action Netherlands is not clear from the post. The email to DUB refers to the activists in the third-person plural, whilst the Instagram post uses ‘we’. The editorial team’s enquiry regarding the relationship between the activists and Palestine Action NL has not been answered.

UU files a police report

This morning, the university discovered that, during the night, the Administration Building at Utrecht Science Park had been daubed with red paint and that windows on the ground floor had been smashed. The police are investigating and the university is set to file a police report.

“This is vandalism,” said Hans Brug, chair of the university board, this morning. “Causing damage to a building anonymously convinces no one and is simply counterproductive. We therefore completely condemn this action and will be reporting it to the police.”

Tags: Pro-Palestine protests | israel | bestuursgebouw
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Kamal, Z. (Zahran):

What has helped other universities to end all ties with a state currently perpetuating a genocide? For Utrecht University, is it a lack of evidence, or is it a deal that compensates the financial losses of ending collaboration? Is there a difference in why an institution like KABK could cut all ties regardless? One might argue that it's actually more detrimental to retain industrial research ties than the cultural ones, though both have their own harms.

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Rense Corten:

It's easy to talk about the abstract notion of "ties", but as you can find on UU's website about these ties, most consist of international research consortia involving many partners, including some UU researchers and an Israeli partner. The only way to "cut" these ties is to unilaterally leave the consortium, which severely harms the research and careers of these UU researchers. I wonder how many of these types of collaborations KABK had?

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Casper:

Daarbij, als ze ooit toegeven hieraan, dan kunnen ze vanaf dan elke week verf van het gebouw afkrabben want er is altijd wel iets om boos over te zijn.

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Kamal, Z. (Zahran):

I am very sure there is a way for researchers to advance a career without having to collaborate with Ben-Gurion, on environmental research no less, an IDF-tied militaristic university that is engaged in modern day displacement of Palestinians, which is also committing ecoside by the way! I am sure many many many Utrecht University researchers would be willing (and already does) take a hit in their 'career' when they choose to not collaborate with research groups with IDF ties.

TLDR, There is no abstraction in these ties. https://academiccomplicity.eu/netherlands/UU

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Wiel, L.Y. van de (Lukas):

Zou het voor deze politiek betrokken demonstranten niet een beter idee zijn om zeker nu op deze warme dagen stukjes (gekoelde) watermeloen uit te delen aan de vele voorbijgangers voor het bestuursgebouw? Deze vrucht wordt immers geassocieerd met de Gazanen, gezien de kleuren van het fruit op hun vlag zitten. Zelfs zo erg dat de voormalig lijsttrekker van de Partij voor de Dieren het nodig vond om in een Watermeloenshirt het katheder van de Tweede Kamer te bestijgen (vind zij de Gazanen dieren?). Dat lijkt me een uitstekende manier om een constructievere draai aan dit debat te geven.

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