Anti-Israel demonstrators in The Hague on Thursday threw red paint on a building in parliament and the offices of a Zionist organization.
In parallel, the left-wing majority on the City Council of Amsterdam called on the municipal government to take in more wounded Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
The vandalism on Thursday coincided with a demonstration by hundreds of people near the Dutch parliament in The Hague against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to dismantle Hamas and in favor of Palestinian statehood, the De Telegraaf daily reported. No arrests have been made.
At the offices of the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI), at least two masked individuals threw the red paint on the entrance as others looked on. CIDI’s offices are situated on a narrow street located about half a mile from parliament.
At around the same time, an unidentified person placed stickers that read “Free Palestine” on the front door of a prominent CIDI activist, a spokesperson for the organization told JNS on Sunday.
The spokesperson said placing the stickers could have been a coincidence, though it appeared to be an attempt to intimidate the activist, given the timing and the selective way the stickers were applied to the activist’s front door.
“The Netherlands is doing nothing for the time being, while leadership is now needed to stop the genocide in Gaza,” the representatives of the six left-wing parties in the city council wrote in their request that the municipality secure the move to the Netherlands of wounded Gazans.
Israel and the U.S. have denied allegations of genocide, as have Yad Vashem—The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Last month, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who has suggested in the past that Israel was perpetrating a genocide in Gaza, posted on X her support for a campaign titled “Do Not Remain Silent” that raises awareness to the suffering of Gazans and blames Israel for it.
“We recognize all too well the helpless fury” felt over Gaza, a text that Halsema posted read. “As local leaders, we feel the need to take action every day,” it continued.
The Maccabi Nederland sports association wrote Halsema an open letter calling her campaign a “moral low point.”
What is “presented as a plea for justice is in reality a one-sided political statement, demonizing Israel and blaming it solely in an extremely complex and tragic conflict,” the letter said.
The campaign sends a signal that Amsterdam Jews who feel connected to Israel “no longer count as full-fledged citizens according to the politicized norms and values of the city government,” the letter continued.
