More than 100 people taken away at Amsterdam rally

11/11/2024 6:05

        Dutch police took away
        more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters on Sunday who defied a
        ban on demonstrations in Amsterdam following clashes this week
        involving Israeli soccer fans.
        
        Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the capital's Dam
        Square, chanting "Free Palestine" and "Amsterdam says no to
        genocide", in reference to the Gaza war.
        
        Israel denies allegations of genocide in its more than
        year-long offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
        
        After a local court ratified the city council's ban, police
        moved in, instructing protesters to leave and rounding up more
        than 100 of them, according to a Reuters journalist.
        
        They were put on buses and dropped off on the outskirts of
        the city, police spokesperson Ramona van den Ochtend said,
        without confirming how many had been picked up.
        
        One protester was taken to an ambulance bleeding.
        
        The ban, which authorities extended for another four days
        until Thursday, has been in place since Friday after attacks on
        Israeli soccer supporters following a soccer match between
        visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam.
        
        At least five people were injured in assaults that Dutch
        authorities and foreign leaders including Israel's Prime
        Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced as antisemitic.
        
        
        
        DETENTIONS
        
        Protest organisers said in a message on Instagram that they
        were outraged by the "framing" of unrest around the match as
        antisemitic and called the protest ban draconian.
        
        "We refuse to let the charge of antisemitism be weaponized
        to suppress Palestinian resistance," they said.
        
        Four people remain detained on suspicion of violent acts,
        including two minors. Another 40 people have been fined for
        public disturbance and 10 for offences including vandalism.
        
        As well as suffering attacks by what the mayor called
        "antisemitic hit-and-run squads", visiting Israeli fans burned a
        Palestinian flag and used sticks, pipes and rocks in clashes
        with opponents, according to a video and police report.
        
        Local police chief Olivier Dutilh told the court on Sunday
        that the protest ban was still needed as antisemitic incidents
        were continuing, including people being pushed out of taxis and
        told to show their passports on Saturday night.
        
        The Netherlands has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents
        since the Gaza war began in October last year.
        
        More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and millions
        displaced in Israel's military offensive on Gaza, according to
        health officials there, launched after Hamas killed 1,200
        Israelis and took more than 250 hostage in a cross-border
        attack, according to Israel.