The following report is translated from the original Dutch, available at Samidoun Nederland:
On 1 July, 2020, over 100 people protested at the U.S. consulate in Amsterdam against the continued colonization of Palestine, specifically the announced Israeli plan to annex even more of the West Bank. At the same time, tens of thousands of people in many different cities around the world took to the streets, from Palestine to the U.S., and from the Philippines to Turkey. It is clear that the ongoing colonization of Palestine will also be met with increasing resistance.
The protest, organized by Samidoun Nederland, was joined by a number of different organizations in support of Palestine, including BDS Netherlands and the PGNL, the Palestinian Community of the Netherlands.
For the entire duration of the protest, U.S. consulate personnel acted fearful and anxious, refusing to leave the consulate and go out throughout the action for Palestine. Their behavior reflects the reality: that they know the U.S. is complicit in the ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine, and that they are unwilling to face any accountability, even the popular anger of the people of the world outside the doors of their well-secured bunker.
Samidoun emphasized that the annexation attempt took place on the very same day as Keti Koti, the Surinamese celebration of the abolition of slavery, and coincides with the international flowering of the Black liberation struggle. “We are also here to show our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle of our Black comrades and communities against racism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism. Especially today, on Keti Koti, we express our support for this movement,” said Samidoun Netherlands.
Speaking on behalf of the Democratic Platform, which includes Kurdish and Turkish revolutionary organizations, Serda Nehirci emphasized the connection between the Kurdish and Palestinian struggles. “All the states that support the annexation label the Kurdish and Palestinian people, who have experienced so much suffering and violence for decades, as the ‘terrorists.’ And then we are the ‘troublemakers,’ the ‘anti-Semites?’ We will not fall for that anymore! And we must make that clear everywhere: We are very legitimate – the struggle is very legitimate! We know who our enemies are, and we know who our friends are. And we as Kurds are friends of the Palestinian people.”
On behalf of Samidoun, Yasmin Ahmed stressed the call for the immediate release of all 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, including French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri. “When we went on a solidarity delegation to Palestine in 2017 with Dutch youth, Salah sat with us one evening together with other former prisoners. He told us about the experience of being a prisoner, including the interrogation process, which basically means torture. Salah has spent seven years in jail for his resistance. He was arrested again yesterday, while he was in a health clinic to get tested for coronavirus because he was planning to go to France to be with his wife and child. He was meant to travel in three days.”
As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Netherlands, we call on all supporters of Palestine to continue to organize actions and to respond to the action calls of our comrades in Palestine. On July 1 there was also a protest at the Israeli embassy in The Hague.
And on Saturday, 4 July, there will be a protest in Maastricht against the continued colonization of Palestine. Join the action in Maastricht or organize one in your city. Together we stand strong for the liberation of Palestine – from the river to the sea!
