The protests at the University of Amsterdam over the past few days have clearly gone too far, prime minister Mark Rutte has said on social media. “You can always demonstrate, but using violence against the police and causing damage is not okay.”

“The violence in Gaza is increasingly being blamed on Jewish Dutch people but this is unfair,” he said. “It is a form of anti-Semitism that we must continue to fight loud and clear. Do not remain silent, do not look away.”

The prime minister said he would discuss the protests with a variety of organisations on Monday, after the holiday weekend. “Anti-Semitism should have no place in the Netherlands,” he said.

Riot police were again drafted in to break up protests by pro-Palestine supporters in Utrecht and Amsterdam on Wednesday night. 

In Utrecht, some 40 people were picked up at the university location on the Drift and moved to a new location by bus, but were not arrested, police said early on Thursday morning. They had refused to comply with a university ultimatum to move which was given shortly after midnight.  

The university later issued a statement saying all its city centre locations would remain closed until Monday to “prevent further unrest and potentially unsafe situations” from arising.  

In Amsterdam, there were 32 arrests at university locations on the Binnengasthuisterrein and the Rokin in the city centre, but the situation was quiet by midnight, police said on social media.  

Earlier in the evening riot police had used diggers to break through the blockades which students had erected at the Binnengasthuisterrein after they refused to leave the premises, having been allowed to sleep there on Tuesday. 

Justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz also issued a short social media statement saying the protestors would have to pay for the damage they had caused. “The rioters who have this on their conscience must be given the bill and the punishment to match,” she said. “Because we will not accept this. Never.”