Thousands of people protested against antisemitism and in support of Jews and Israel on Thursday, at gathering in Amsterdam organized by Christian Zionists and Jewish groups.
Police removed several anti-Israel protesters who showed up to confront the crowd at the so-called Stopera complex near the city’s Waterloo Square. The event was headlined “Together against Jew-Hatred.”
The Israel supporters waved Israeli and Dutch flags at the demonstration co-organized by Christians for Israel. Frank van Oordt, the NGO’s director, was one of the speakers who referenced the series of assaults by dozens of Muslims on Israelis returning from a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax in Amsterdam on Nov. 7.
“We see attempts to blame the Jews for violence against them and we are sick of it,” said van Oordt, whose father, Karel, founded Christians for Israel in 1979. “We are standing by our Jews now, we do so proudly and we will not stand by as hatred is incited again against them.”
Several of the attendees blew a shofar as others applauded van Oordt.
Naomi Mestrum, the director of the Center for Information and Documentation Israel, a Dutch-Jewish group, thanked Christians for Israel for standing up for Jews and called on others to follow suit.
“Everyone should be standing by the Jewish people now,” she said. “We are done talking. The authorities need to show up.”
Esther Voet, the editor-in-chief of the Dutch-Jewish weekly NIW, noted that organizers reminded the demonstrators not to display the Israeli flag while leaving the demonstration for fear of attacks.
Several speakers criticized Mayor Femke Halsema for revoking the permit the city gave the event’s organizers to hold the protest at Dam Square, a central point where many of the Nov. 7 assaults happened, and have it moved to the less central Stopera area. Halsema, a former leader of the far-left GroenLinks (“GreenLeft”) party, cited public order concerns.
Last week, Halsema retracted her initial use of the word “pogrom” to describe the Nov. 7 assaults, where the perpetrators’ violence, use of the term “Jew hunt” to describe their actions, and level of coordination shocked many witnesses. In recent weeks, politicians on the Dutch left repeated a narrative in which the Israelis instigated or provoked the violence. The victims and many witnesses dispute these allegations.
