Dutch police arrested dozens of protesters who held a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration in Amsterdam on Sunday, defying a ban ordered days after clashes provoked by Israeli football fans took place in the city.

Earlier in the day, the Amsterdam District Court put in place a three-day ban on protests following unrest between Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans and Dutch youth.

On Wednesday and Thursday, travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans stirred trouble in different parts of the Dutch capital by chanting racist anti-Arab slogans ahead of their Uefa Europa League match against Amsterdam club Ajax.

Hooligans were also seen removing at least two Palestinian flags from what appeared to be residential buildings the night before the match. On match day, Israeli fans heading to the Johan Cruyff Arena stadium were heard shouting “Let the IDF [Israeli army] fuck the Arabs”, according to footage shared on social media. They also refused to participate in a minute of silence before kick-off for at least 200 people who died in the Valencia floods.

Amid the provocations against Arabs in the city, clashes erupted between the Israeli hooligans and a number of Dutch youths before and after the match and late into the night.

In one video posted by news site Bender, a large group of Maccabi supporters were seen arming themselves with sticks, pipes and rocks and twice clashing with opponents when they marched into the city.

Mayor Femke Halsema on Friday said the attacks were carried out by “antisemitic hit-and-run squads”, a narrative widely slammed on social media, and announced a protest ban and emergency measures to stay in place until Monday morning.

On Sunday afternoon, however, hundreds of peaceful protesters gathered in Dam Square, in the city centre, amid heavy police presence.

The protesters chanted slogans and carried placards including one that read: “We can fight anti-Semitism and genocidal Zionism at the same time.”

  • evilkevin22@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Just to give some context here.

    Due to due hightend situation and the risk of further violence, the mayor of Amsterdam forbid all protests until Thursday.

    The protest right in the Netherlands can be revoked temporarily (like a couple of days most) in very specific circumstances. It’s also only applicable to that city.

    Believe me when i say, people protest their ass of here. Unions, farmers, climate activists and for stuff like the housing crisis for example.

    And yeah our current federal government coalition is more pro Israel but they don’t have the power to just suddenly cancel our protest rights. That is up to local politicians and mayors.

    • febra@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      All protests or just pro-Palestine protests? There’s a huge difference between the two.

  • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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    6 days ago

    With Israel’s mask off, other nations need to start allowing these protesters so long as they don’t actually turn violent.

    We don’t need to pretend that Israel is the “good guys” anymore; they’ve straight-up told us told us that they aren’t.

  • Locrin@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Hmm protests are temporarily not allowed. Pro Palestine groups still protest. They never were good at following rules.

    • Saleh@feddit.org
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      7 days ago

      Fascists storm through your city. They vandalize homes and cars, chant genocidal chants, and beat up your neighbors.

      Some people organize to fight back.

      You get blamed for being evil as you didn’t support the fascists and also footage of the fascists hunting your neighbor are used to accuse you of being evil as you didn’t support the fascists.

      The government takes side with the fascists and forbids you from protesting while the fascists sing in celebration on their flights home.

      Clearly you are at fault for not accepting this. If you had just put your head on the curb for them to stomp it, you could have prevented all of this! You are in the wrong for not letting them beat you up in peace. Now the poor government has a whole mess to deal with, because you didn’t just accept being stomped by the fascists. That makes you the one at fault and the wrong one in this story. Don’t you know these fascists are superior to you? Why don’t you know your place?

    • hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 days ago

      Yeah, how dare they stand up for human rights even after being told not to! Because everyone knows that blind obedience has never resulted in anything bad.

  • StraponStratos@lemmy.sdf.org
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    7 days ago

    And how many of those Israeli bastards who instigated the violence did they arrest? Racist ass Europe.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      7 days ago

      They should’ve arrested all of them and held them until they could work out which ones are war criminals that can be referred to the Hague.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
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        7 days ago

        Clearly, this could all have been avoided if the court had ordered a ban on Israeli hate crimes. It’s shameful that they haven’t!

        Is this sarcasm? I honestly don’t know myself any more.

  • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Maybe Maccabi Tel Aviv shouldn’t be in UEFA. Getting the boot from AFC might not have been fair in the 70’s but if your fans can’t travel to fucking Ajax, just don’t play international football.