Dutch police detain 50 pro-Palestine protesters who defy ban in Amsterdam

Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters turned up in central Amsterdam yesterday in response to anti-Palestinian provocations by notoriously racist Israeli football hooligans that triggered riots in the city on Thursday night. Defying a local court order that temporarily banned demonstrations, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Amsterdam's Dam Square, chanting "Free Palestine" and "Amsterdam says no to genocide", in reference to Israel's brutal war on Gaza. Dutch 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. This is in contrast to the riots last week where no Israelis were arrested - but were instead given close police protection and escorted to their accommodations. The riots on Thursday started after fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv gathered in central Amsterdam last Thursday as their club played local giants Ajax, chanting anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab slogans. Eyewitnesses said gangs of Israeli thugs first instigated violence by ripping down a Palestinian flag from a house in Amsterdam city centre, an act which has been caught on several online videos, although The New Arab could not immediately verify the footage. Separate footage also shows one Israeli thug attacking a taxi reportedly belonging to an ethnic Arab resident with crowbar, which prompted other Dutch Arab cab drivers to attack the hooligans, which was broken up by the police. Maccabi hooligans also reportedly attacked Arab residents in the Dutch capital, as well as chanting obscene racist slogans against Palestinians and Arabs. As reported by the Clash Report, the Maccabi fans, who were protected by police, “chanted anti-Arab slurs and a genocidal song in Amsterdam”, including lines such as “there are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left”, “Let the IDF win to fuck the Arabs” and “Fuck you Palestine”.