Dutch police detain 50 protesters at pro-Palestinian rally after soccer unrest

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By Anthony Deutsch and Charlotte Van Campenhout

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch police said they took away more than 300 pro-Palestinian protesters who ignored a ban on demonstrations in Amsterdam on Sunday and detained 50 more following clashes involving Israeli soccer fans last week.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the capital’s Dam Square, chanting “Free Palestine” and “Amsterdam says no to genocide”, in reference to the Gaza war.

Israel denies allegations of genocide in its more than year-long offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

After a local court ratified the city council’s ban, police moved in, instructing protesters to leave and rounding up more than 100 of them.

Police said they removed 340 people from the protest area by putting them on buses and dropping them off on the outskirts of the city. Another 50 protesters were detained by the police.

One protester was taken to an ambulance due to bleeding.

The ban, which authorities extended for another four days until Thursday, has been in place since Friday after attacks on Israeli soccer supporters following a soccer match between visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam.

At least five people were injured in assaults that Dutch authorities and foreign leaders including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced as antisemitic.

On Sunday, Israel urged its citizens to avoid attending cultural and sports events abroad involving Israelis over the coming week. A statement issued by Netanyahu’s office said Israel had intelligence that pro-Palestinian groups abroad intended to harm Israelis in cities in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and others.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office meanwhile announced that he would attend the France-Israel match at Stade de France on Thursday to promote “fraternity and solidarity” following the events in Amsterdam.

DETENTIONS

In the Netherlands, protest organisers said in a message on Instagram that they were outraged by the “framing” of unrest around the match as antisemitic and called the protest ban draconian.

“We refuse to let the charge of antisemitism be weaponized to suppress Palestinian resistance,” they said.

Four people remain detained on suspicion of violent acts, including two minors. Another 40 people have been fined for public disturbance and 10 for offences including vandalism.

Police said that hit-and-run actions were held against visiting Israeli fans Thursday night, adding that the fans on their part burned a Palestinian flag and used sticks, pipes and rocks in clashes with opponents, as video footage also shows.

Police said on Sunday that they would also investigate footage showing Maccabi fans using violence, though a police spokesperson could not immediately confirm which footage exactly would be part of the investigation.

Local police chief Olivier Dutilh told the court on Sunday that the protest ban was still needed as antisemitic incidents were continuing, including people being pushed out of taxis and told to show their passports on Saturday night.

The Netherlands has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents since the Gaza war began in October last year.

More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, according to health officials there, and much of the enclave has been destroyed. Israel launched its campaign after Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage in a cross-border attack, according to Israel.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch, Bart Meijer and Charlotte Van CampenhoutAdditional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Elizabeth Pineau in ParisEditing by Andrew Cawthorne, Frances Kerry and Lisa Shumaker)