For the second time since Oct. 7, 2023, protesters in Amsterdam on Sunday displayed a banner stating “I support Hamas” at the city’s main monument for World War II fatalities.
Separately, at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, hundreds gathered for a rally featuring signs and chants of “yallah intifada” and portraits of Ali Khamenei, the late spiritual leader of Iran, according to rally footage and a report by Bild. Intifada means “uprising” in Arabic, and is used to describe a coordinated series of terrorist attacks against Israelis, and often also Jews.
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, the Netherlands’ second-largest party, condemned the displays in Amsterdam.
The display opposite the National Monument on Dam Square featured a green banner reading “We support Hamas,” and another banner headlined “axis of resistance” followed by the terrorist groups Hezbollah, PFLP and Islamic Jihad. An earlier display with the same banners or very similar ones happened at the same location on Oct. 7, the third anniversary of the massacres carries out by Hamas terrorists in Israel.
Hundreds of people attended that rally, until it was dispersed amid a clash with a supporter of Israel and the use of fireworks by the anti-Israel protesters, the Cvandaag news site reported.
“Amsterdam today. Extreme left mayor and anti-Israeli Prime Minister are silent. The Jew haters rule this land. I would hunt them all down, no support for Hamas in my Holland! Hopefully soon new elections!” wrote Wilders on X about the second incident.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the expressions of support for Hamas as “shocking and distasteful” but said they were not, in themselves, criminal offenses.
Wilders has often criticized what he called lenient treatment of hateful and antisemitic anti-Israel protesters by Halsema, a left-wing politician. She has accused Israeli soccer fans for their own assault by dozens of Muslims on Nov. 8-9, 2024, among other acts and policies by Halsema widely deemed as anti-Israeli.
Dutch lawmaker Diederik van Dijk of the Reformed Political Party (SGP) submitted 14 parliamentary questions to David van Weel, the Netherlands’ minister of justice and security, after demonstrators displayed a “We support Hamas” banner on Amsterdam’s Dam Square on Oct. 7, Cvandaag reported.
He asked why authorities had not intervened sooner, whether existing laws against participation in terrorist organizations could apply, and how such demonstrations affect Jewish citizens’ safety.
The press team of Berlin’s police did not reply by press time to a request for comment on information by JNS about the Brandenburg rally, including on whether officers had intervened when protesters called out for an intifada.
