Palestinian students chasing away EU representatives
Students at Birzeit University located in Ramallah in the West Bank attacked German Ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Oliver Owcza, as well as a number of ambassadors and foreign officials from European Union countries, including German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert, forcing them from the Palestinian museum on the university campus, claiming that is was part of a "protest against Germany's support for the war in Gaza."
Videos circulated on social media showing Seibert running from the campus while being chased by students who removed and threw their shoes at him. The students broke the windshield of the car in which the ambassador fled and shouted: "Get out."
"Peaceful protest & dialogue always has its place. We regret that today’s meeting of EU Heads of Missions at the National Museum in Birzeit was unduly interrupted by protesters," Owcza wrote on his X account shortly after the visit. "Nevertheless, we remain committed to constructively work with our Palestinian partners!"
This isn’t the first time European diplomats have been chased away by Palestinian protesters. In a similar incident that occurred 24 years ago, then-French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin also was driven away from the same campus.
On February 27, 2000, Jospin delivered a lecture at the university, during which he used racial terms and expressions that angered the students. In response, they hurled stones at him and chased him out of the institution.