Rutte defends A'dam mayor's decision to allow demonstration at Holocaust Museum opening
Prime Minister Mark Rutte defended Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema’s decision to allow a demonstration at the opening of the National Holocaust Museum on Sunday. About a thousand people protested on Waterlooplein against the presence of Israeli president Isaac Herzog at the opening. Thirteen people arrested at the demonstration were all released from custody again on Monday.
“The right to demonstrate is part of a free and democratic society,” Halsema said on Monday about the protest, which could be heard from the opening ceremony. “It gives a voice to everyone who disagrees with something. That does not detract from the lasting value of the Holocaust Museum in our city.”
PVV leader Geert Wilders had criticized Halsema for allowing the demonstration, calling it an “unprecedented shame” that the pro-Palestine demonstrators could come so close to the opening ceremony. In his post on X, he called Halsema (GroenLinks-PvdA) a left-wing extremist and accused her of a “political action.”
The outgoing Dutch Prime Minister very rarely responds to posts on social media, but he did so on Monday. “Dear Geert. We all wished that the opening of the National Holocaust Museum yesterday could have been peaceful. But one thing is certain: when it comes to maintaining public order, our mayors do not engage in politics,” he replied to Wilders’ post.
The protest was against Israeli president Herzog’s attending and giving a speech at the museum’s opening. The demonstrators found it incomprehensible that he would be invited to open the museum focused on the genocide of Jewish people in World War II while his country was slaughtering Palestinian people in Gaza by the thousands. Herzog himself was involved in the attacks, a consortium of mosques pointed out ahead of the museum’s opening. In December, he wrote the words “I trust you” on a massive grenade shortly before it was fired on Gaza.
Over 31,470 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, including about 12,300 children, Al Jazeera reported based on figures from the Health Ministry in Gaza from March 10. That is more than 1 out of every 75 people in Gaza dead. Over 72,645 are hurt, and 8,000 people are missing, many trapped under the rubble. Over half a million people are on the brink of famine in Gaza, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday. Children are dying of hunger, and Israel only allowed half the planned aid missions for February, he said.
Israel’s incessant bombing of Gaza was prompted by Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7. About 1,139 people were killed in those attacks.
Wilders met with Herzog in Amsterdam on Monday. “I told him I am proud that he visits the Netherlands and that Israel has, and always will have, my full support in its fight against terror,” he said on X with a photo of the two of them grasping hands.
The police arrested 13 protesters around the demonstration for disrupting public order and vandalism, among other things. According to the police, a small group of protesters created a grim atmosphere on Waterlooplein. They threw eggs, stones, and fireworks and defaced police vans with paint, the police said. They were all released from custody again by Monday afternoon, a police spokesperson told ANP.
