On Sunday 6 June, more than one hundred people protested on Dam Square in Amsterdam for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. The protest, organized by the Palestinijnse Gemeenschap in Nederland, Youth for Palestine and Samidoun, proved that mobilizations will continue as long as the Palestinian resistance continues. On the day that Muna and Mohammed El Kurd were arrested in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian and Dutch youth stated: we will not rest until Palestine is liberated from the river to the sea!
Zionist aggression and police repression
At the beginning of the protest for Palestine, a handful of Zionists had been given permission to counter protest with five people. Plain clothed officers were standing with the Zionists and uniformed police, making it impossible to recognize them as police and distinguish them from the Zionists.
From the beginning, the Zionists tried to provoke the pro-Palestine protesters into a physical altercation in order to escalate the demonstration and in this way give the police the right to dissolve the protest on the spot. When this failed, one of them punched a Palestinian protester in the face so hard that he bled from his cheek. Even though everyone saw that it were the Zionists who had delivered the blow, the Palestinian protester was eventually forcibly removed and temporarily detained while the Zionist was not.
This is yet another example of collaboration between the Amsterdam municipality, Dutch police and the Zionist agenda:
- The Zionist anti-Palestinian protest should never have been approved by the municipality at the same place and time: This is promoting an escalation in an attempt to delegitimize the Palestinian movement in the Netherlands.
- Police should never have stood in civilian clothes between the Zionists and uniformed police: By dressing themselves as Zionists – including Israeli patches on their clothing – the police were part of the attempted escalation by the Zionist demonstration, aiming to provoke and arrest Palestine protesters at the first touch.
- The fact that the Palestinian protester was forcibly removed and detained instead of the Zionist, when everyone knew who the aggressor was, shows the bias of the police.
Full speech by Yasmin Ahmed of Samidoun Netherlands
“Comrades and friends,
It’s great to see everyone out here today, lively and unified on our commitment to continue to struggle for the liberation of Palestine and support all forms of Palestinian resistance.
It’s been two weeks since the ceasefire was implemented in Gaza, and though the Zionist military cowardly targets Palestinians and caused huge casualties in including 66 children in it’s latest attack, the true victor was the Palestinian resistance. When the resistance in Gaza answered the call of Al Quds and Sheikh Jarrah, the Zionist state could not crush them, they did not stop the rocket fire which has left their so called invincible Iron Dome depleted. They did not stop Palestinians from across 48 or so called Israel from taking to the streets and answering the call for resistance. 73 years of ethic cleansing, separating and dividing Palestine into different parts and different conditions has not separated Palestinians from each other has not turned out how the Zionist entity planned. Palestine is still the demand and Palestinians across all of Palestine, Gaza, 48, the West Bank, are united in their goal for a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea. And Jerusalem remains its eternal capital.
Israel are now requesting $1 billion in military aid to replenish it’s US built “Iron Dome” on top of the $735m provided during the fighting. Their military might had been damaged by the latest war but it will be replenished easily by the US, who relies on its alliance with Israel to maintain the global imperialist status quo. Israel continues it’s campaign to evict Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan and across Palestinian neighbourhoods in Jerusalem, it has created new laws in order to carry mass arrests of Palestinians, especially youth, across 48 or so called Israel, it continues to annex Palestinian land in the West Bank and pump in more European and US settlers. And the Palestinian Authority continues to run security coordination with Israel to suppress resistance in the west bank. There are over 4500 Palestinian prisoners in Zionist prisons. We must always remember and fight for the freedom of the prisoners, who are on the frontline of confrontation with the Zionist enemy everyday, who have turned prisons into revolutionary schools of resistance. We see that Palestinians against all odds has remained steadfast in their liberation struggle and we must support all forms of their Resistance.
Too often when the bombs stop falling on Gaza the international solidarity movement quietens its actions. But not this time. We are still out here on the streets raising the flag of Palestine, and we will not stop until all of Palestine is liberated from the river to the sea.
And we see this continued momentum across the world. in Ireland the campaign to expel the Israeli ambassador is still being fought by activists on the ground, the streets of New York are being taken over regularly by Palestinian diaspora and solidarity activists, in the UK, Palestine Action are occupying the death factories of Israeli arms company Elbit, these are just a few of the many mobilisations happening to support Palestinian liberation. And we must continue here, supporting the students on campus fighting for apartheid free campuses, confronting their schools to end ties with Israeli institutions, pushing for boycott of Israeli goods in your local food market and in your own purchases, continuing campaigns for divestment from Israeli enterprises and sanctions on the Zionist state. And above all supporting Palestinian resistance and following their line always, and we must remain on the streets and make sure that the Zionists in the Netherlands, like Mark Rutte, who said that Israel has a right to defend itself as it was killing children, and the Israeli lobby CIDI — let them know that we are not going anywhere, we will continue demonstrating and standing up for Palestine until Palestine is free from Zionism and imperialism, from the river to the sea.”
