UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed concern about eviction of pro-Palestinian protesters from US university campuses and stressed that some police actions were “disproportionate.”

“Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society, especially when there are deep divisions on important issues,” said Turk, who included “the conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel” in this category.

In this sense, he appealed to moderation –“legality, necessity and proportionality” – limit any action regarding protests to the need to guarantee other rights and freedoms or the maintenance of public order, emphasizing that incitement to hatred will also not be tolerated.

“Incitement to violence or hatred based on identity or viewpoint, whether real or motivated by prejudice, must be firmly rejected,” the High Commissioner said. “We have already seen that this dangerous rhetoric can quickly lead to real violence“, added.

However, he called for any such behavior to be investigated. “individual” formso the inappropriate comments of a few cannot be “attributed to all protesters.”

You might be interested > At least 60 US universities are holding pro-Palestinian protests

The protests began in Columbia University in New York, to later spread to other campuses in the United States and even other countries such as France. The students express their solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

(Europe Press)