Netherlands marches against genocide, in solidarity with Palestinian Resistance

On Sunday, 5 October, over 250.000 people from across the Netherlands participated in the “Red Line” demonstration in Amsterdam to demand an end to the ongoing Zionist-imperialist genocide against the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza.  The city was effectively shut down for hours, with public transport brought to halt, many businesses closed and the streets filled with demonstrators in support of Palestine.

Among these hundreds of thousands, participants, including Samidoun Netherlands, joined the Revolutionary Bloc, called in order to raise the demands of this march. Organized and launched by The Hague for Palestine, the bloc was supported by other local Palestine solidarity organisations, student groups and other progressive forces, particularly as the  “Red Line” demonstration is a largely NGO-backed and -organized initiative that is backed by some of the same political parties that have previously being supporting Israel’s genocide on Gaza.

This call and movement has emerged out of the popular movement and mass revulsion against the Zionist entity, which has witnessed an immense turning tide among the Dutch population. In this context, the Red Line demonstration unites around the basic demand of sanctions on Israel.

With the revolutionary bloc, we marched for an end to the genocide and the siege, liberation of the prisoners, liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea and return for all Palestinians exiled from their homeland.  We raised banners to support the resistance and chanted for our freedom fighters. We also heard from Mahmoud, brother of Palestinian journalist from Gaza Mustafa Ayyash, who has been imprisoned in the Netherlands since September 19. Mustafa, the founder of media platform GazaNow, was detained as he attempted to enter the Netherlands to visit his family, despite the fact that he is an Austrian citizen.

For nearly three weeks, Dutch authorities have been and continue to hold him captive on trumped-up charges, and there are significant fears he could be extradited to the Zionist entity. He has previously been subjected to bogus sanctions lists in both the United States and Britain. While the streets were filled with people demanding and end to Dutch complicity, the Dutch state continues to imprison Palestinians and escalate its repression of those who are struggling for Palestinian liberation.

Sunday’s demo was the third and largest Red Line protest; it was in fact the largest protest that has taken place in the Netherlands in over 20 years. The sheer numbers of people who took to the streets is a clear indication of Israel’s loss of the propaganda war.  The people stand with Palestine, the people see clearly the descent of Zionism and imperialism into full-force fascism, reflected also in the Dutch government pushing forward policy to criminalise support for the resistance, attempting to characterize it as “glorifying terrorism” — the same framework used to repress free expression on Palestine in Britain and France.

Movements in the Netherlands organized and marched again on 7 October; in Amsterdam, only two days after this historic largest demonstration in decades, the mayor banned the march in support of Palestine and the Resistance. In the Hague, marchers took to the streets, were blocked from marching to the Zionist embassy, and were repeatedly kettled by police, attempting to break the rally into small groups and disperse it. Despite the police intimidation and rainy skies, participants chanted, “Long live the 7th of October!”

Within the broad movement supporting Palestine, there is a resilient progressive force that continues to raise the demands to total liberation, and continues to build alliances across sectors and struggles, focusing on uplifting and standing clearly with the Resistance. We mark the two year anniversary of the Al Aqsa flood, October 7 ,2023 was the day that changed the world and ushered in a new era of resistance, a resistance that will continue to grow and fight until an end to Zionism and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.