On Wednesday afternoon I stood for a while watching pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the grounds of the University of Amsterdam near the Oudemanhuispoort. It was shortly before the police intervened and drove the demonstrators to another part of the city center.
I was reminded of a comment I heard Geert Wilders make on TV. He called the demonstrators “scum from the ledge” – a great honor, because an insult he normally reserves for the press – and in an apparently careless aside he wondered “how those people can all get across the border.” Foreign scum from the ledge, although he probably did not mean any supporters of Orbán.
At the Oudemanhuispoort I mingled with the audience, consisting of spectators and demonstrators, while walking back and forth. Foreigners? What I mainly saw and heard were young people, in their twenties, who made a rather Dutch impression, both in appearance and language use. Only the banners were often in English. „No one is free until we are all free” and “Cut the ties with Zionism, Apartheid – Genocide.” And, a little bit naughtier: “Uva suck your clit”.
What also struck me was the face coverings of many protesters, especially those standing on and behind the barricades. Palestinian scarves, face masks, half masks. There was something unsympathetic about it because you automatically associate that need for unrecognizability with crime. Anyone who claims the freedom of demonstration should also grant the outsider the freedom of observation. Yes, that can lead to arrest afterwards, but fortunately in the Netherlands you are still properly tried.
Demonstrating requires a lot of perseverance. Let yourself be excited for hours by an often unintelligible, unknown man with a megaphone who wants you to be as fanatical as possible with him “Free Palestine!” shouts. This can only be achieved through the rock-solid conviction that one’s own right is the only truth. Nuances are not allowed – and I often miss them at demonstrations, including this one.
Israel is the main culprit. The only. Hamas does not exist, at least not on the banners and in the chants of these demonstrators. Israel is the evil that must be fought. Nowhere did I see or hear any reference to the harm done by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The murders, the rapes, the kidnapping. No demonstrators called on Hamas to release the hostages. Hamas must apparently be able to continue unhindered with its horrific blackmail, which affects not only Israel but also its own population. The moral conscience of the demonstrators suddenly has no problem with that.
A condemnation of Hamas will be regarded by the demonstrators as a sign of weakness, an unacceptable concession to the enemy, Israel. For me it would demonstrate a useful sense of reality. Israel must be condemned for its unbridled thirst for revenge, which is leading to a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, but anyone who spares Hamas in doing so undermines its own credibility.
There really only needs to be one word on those banners replaced: “No one is free until we are all honest.”
To share
Email the editor
