Protesting young people accosted at Labour party event
Members of the Center for Information an Documentation on Israel's youth organization CIJO where "physically harassed" while protesting at a meeting with British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the Paard in The Hague on Thursday. CIJO chairman Hidde van Koningsveld got "a few blows to the neck", CIJO said, the Telegraaf reports.
The CIJO members went to the venue with a banner accusing Corby's party of anti-Semitism. "Labour: for the many, not the Jew", the banner, which they hung from the balcony during the British politician's speech, read. Some people at the event did not take the banner well, and there was an altercation.
Security guards eventually escorted the demonstrators outside, and the situation did not escalate further.
PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher, who received Corbyn on Thursday and was also at the event, called the incident "terrible" in a tweet to a CIDI employee. "No one is justified to commit violence in my name", he said.
A PvdA spokesperson confirmed to the Telegraaf that there was indeed a skirmish, but that it was not serious. "Two Jewish gentlemen in the audience felt insulted by the banner. Then there was some pushing and pulling. But violence is a strong word."
