Protesters chase EU diplomats from Palestinian Museum

Palestinian Authority police prevent demonstrators from reaching the Canadian Representative Office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on April 30, 2024 – Copyright GETTY IMAGES/AFP POOL

Protesters from a Palestinian university chased a group of European diplomats out of a museum in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday over what activists said was their position on the Gaza war.

Video posted on social media showed Italian consul general Domenico Bellato hurrying away from the Palestinian Museum near the city of Ramallah followed by a crowd of demonstrators.

“The student’s movement refused those visitors to come to the museum because of their position on the genocide in Gaza. For that we asked them to leave,” student representative Omar Kayed told AFP.

A source present at the scene said the crowd had been looking for a diplomat from Germany, which is among European states that have come under fire recently for supporting Israel in the Gaza war.

“There was an EU retreat at the museum today. Around lunchtime, a demonstration gathered outside,” Christian Kussler, spokesman for the German representative office in Ramallah, told AFP.

“The EU heads of missions present, including the German (one), decided to leave the premises”, he said, adding his office was assessing the situation.

The national Palestinian Museum is located in the West Bank city of Birzeit, north of Ramallah, next to Birzeit University.

In the video shared online, one man could be heard shouting “Out!”.

Other footage showed a car allegedly belonging to the diplomats stuck in the middle of a crowd, with people knocking on windows and throwing objects in its direction.

– ‘Non-supportive countries’ –

In a statement, the Palestinian Museum distanced itself from the EU event that took place on its premises.

“We did not invite any ambassadors from the countries who attended today”, the statement read, adding that “no list of invitees’ names was presented to us”.

“If we had known of the presence of ambassadors from non-supportive countries, we would have refused to rent the hall,” it added.

The statement said the museum only knew about a room being rented by the Belgian embassy, “which has stood with the Palestinian voice and cause since the beginning of the aggression against our people in Gaza”.

“We regret that today’s meeting of EU heads of missions at the national museum in Birzeit was unduly interrupted by protesters,” German head of mission Oliver Owzca said on X.

“Nevertheless, we remain committed to constructively work with our Palestinian partners”, he added.

Elsewhere, Palestinian police were forced to prevent protesters from reaching the Canadian representative office in Ramallah on Tuesday in a rally against that country’s positions over the Gaza war, an AFP photographer said.

The demonstrations came as the International Court of Justice threw out Nicaragua’s request for emergency measures to stop Germany sending military supplies to Israel because of its action in the Gaza war.

The war broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.