Christian, Jewish organizations protesting in Amsterdam against anti-Semitism tonight

About 20 Christian and Jewish organizations are holding a demonstration against Jew-hatred and anti-Semitism at the Amsterdam Stopera on Thursday evening. The Amsterdam office of the mayor, police, and prosecutor moved the demonstration called ‘We stand next to our Jews’ from Dam Square to the Stopera for security reasons. A Palestine-support counter-demonstration has been announced on social media for the same time and place.

Christians for Israel, the Recovered Reformed Church, the Central Jewish Consultation, and the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI), among others, are involved in the demonstration. From 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., they want to send a “strong signal against Jew-hatred” at the city hall, said Christians for Israel. “The demonstration is a signal to show that the Jewish community in the Netherlands is not alone.” Director Frank van Oordt said earlier that he found it “enormously important” that the action would continue, even though it would not be on Dam Square but at the Stopera.

Pro-Palestinian activists called on social media to let “a strong counter-voice” be heard at the Stopera on Thursday evening. “They claim to be there to demonstrate against anti-Semitism, but we want to make it clear that supporting genocide in Palestine and fighting anti-Semitism can never go together,” the call reads. “We are here to show that fighting anti-Semitism and standing up for the rights of Palestinians go hand-in-hand.”

According to the Amsterdam authorities, the risks to public order and safety were too great to allow the demonstration to happen on Dam Square. Mayor Femke Halsema said that the decision to move the protest was partly due to the expected shopping crowds in the city around Pakjesavond, the evening that Sinterklaas delivers gifts to children. The increased number of protests on Dam Square also causes more nuisance and risks for entrepreneurs and locals.