Police detain pro-Palestinian protesters defying Amsterdam ban

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By Stephanie Burnett

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Police detained pro-Palestinian protesters rallying in central Amsterdam on Wednesday in defiance of a ban imposed after violence stemming from a football match between Ajax and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Dozens of demonstrators, some with Palestinian flags, chanted “Amsterdam is saying no to genocide” and “Free Palestine”.

Police in riot gear encircled the group and they were detained and put on buses.

Police with expanded stop-and-search powers in the Dutch capital have detained or removed hundreds of demonstrators since last week’s clashes under emergency measures imposed until Thursday.

“We say: Free Palestine. Stop killing innocent people. Stop killing the children,” said demonstrator Max van den Berg, 32, calling on the Netherlands to halt its support for Israel.

Israel denies genocide in Gaza. It says that forces combating Palestinian Hamas militants that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, do not target civilians.

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.

Amsterdam’s police department said Maccabi fans attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag and were chased down and beaten by anti-Israeli gangs on scooters after an online appeal to taxi drivers. Five people were treated for injuries and released from hospitals. Police escorted hundreds of Maccabi fans to their hotels.

Israeli and Dutch politicians have denounced the attacks as antisemitic and recalled persecution of Jews during World War Two. Pro-Palestinians countered that they responded to an attack by the Maccabi supporters and provocative anti-Arab chants.

Four out of 62 suspects detained during the violence, which included 10 Israelis, remain in custody. Police are still looking for suspects.

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

Less than 1% of Amsterdam’s population is Jewish following the Holocaust, while around 15% is Muslim, mostly second and first-generation immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East.

Additional arrests were made during rioting on Monday night in the predominantly immigrant neighbourhood of West Amsterdam where Moroccan-Dutch youths sympathise with Palestinians in Gaza.

(Reporting by Stephanie Burnett; Writing by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Ros Russell and Diane Craft)