Police in Amsterdam arrested six pro-Hamas protesters after they disturbed a moment of silence during the country’s Remembrance of the Dead memorial ceremony in the Dutch capital on Sunday night.
According to local media reports, the activists unfurled a Palestinian flag and yelled “Free Palestine” as they were detained.
One of the suspects was identified as Elise H., in keeping with local privacy laws that prohibit the publication of the last name pending criminal proceedings. The activist previously posted a selfie showing herself wearing a sweater that read “Death to Israel” on social media.
In a separate incident, an activist hoisted a Palestinian flag and shouted, “Shame on you, blood on your hands” during a speech by Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof. Dozens of people turned their backs towards the premier during his remarks, the local ANP press agency reported.
Remembrance of the Dead, marked annually on May 4, commemorates all Dutch civilians and troops “killed or murdered in the Kingdom of the Netherlands or anywhere else in the world in war situations or during peace-keeping operations since the outbreak of the Second World War.”
The following day, on May 5, the European nation marks Liberation Day to celebrate the end of the Nazi occupation between 1940 and 1945.
Debate has arisen in recent years regarding Remembrance of the Dead, with pro-Palestinian groups staging frequent protests surrounding the national ceremony, which also commemorates the more than 100,000 Jews from The Netherlands who were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, including Dutch authorities and fellow citizens.
An alternative, non-official ceremony in The Hague that also focused on Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip drew some 3,000 people on Sunday.
On Monday, a Liberation Day speech by Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans was also disturbed by pro-Palestinian activists. They were overpowered by a high-ranking military official at the scene.
In a Instagram post marking Remembrance of the Dead on Sunday, the country’s Labor Party said that in addition to Holocaust victims, it was also remembering all non-Dutch “victims of war and violence,” including in the Gaza Strip, Rwanda, Srebrenica and Ukraine.
The statement did not mention the some 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, who were massacred by Palestinian terrorists and unaffiliated Gaza “civilians” who infiltrated southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The victims in Srebrenica, Rwanda, Ukraine, and Gaza are also being remembered. But not those in Syria, Sudan, Iran, Yemen, and not the 1,200 Israeli civilians murdered by Hamas. That doesn’t fit the political narrative, because the perpetrators are Islamists,” Ronny Naftaniel, a Jewish leader, tweeted, accusing the party of “politicizing” the day.
The Hamas-led cross-border terrorist attack from Gaza marked the worst single-day slaughter of Jews since the end of the Holocaust.