NL4Palestine and Bring Them Home Now plan demonstration in Amsterdam

The action groups NL4Palestine and Bring Them Home Now are both organizing demonstrations in Amsterdam on Saturday afternoon. Both actions have been registered with and approved by the municipality.

The NL4Palestine demonstration will start at 1 p.m. on Dam Square and is being organized to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel and Hamas are at war with each other. Some guests will address the crowd from a podium. Afterwards there will be a march to Westerpark. The organizers expect 10,000 to 20,000 participants.

After the end of the NL4Palestine demonstration, an action by Bring Them Home Now will begin about 3.5 kilometers away, on the Prinsengracht. The organization is sailing 60 boats through the canals to the Waterlooplein to draw attention to the Hamas hostages in the Gaza Strip. Photos of the hostages can be seen on the boats. The action will conclude at the Waterlooplein with speeches by guest speakers.

The volunteer-based organization Bring Them Home Now offers families holistic medical and emotional support as well as professional assistance, and advances the ongoing efforts locally, regionally, and globally, to bring the hostages and the missing back home, it states on their website.

In addition to the boat parade, people can walk along the quay to the Waterlooplein. The organization expects 1,000 to 2,000 participants.

The city of Amsterdam is in contact with both organizations to ensure that the demonstrations run safely. In order to avoid any security risks, the streams of participants will be separated. For example, the NL4Palestine march was originally supposed to end at Museumplein, but Westerpark has now been chosen as the end point so it does not interfere with the other demonstration.