Riot police clash with pro-Palestininian protesters in Amsterdam; 73 arrested
The riot police surrounded a group of dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Dam Square in Amsterdam last night and arrested 73 of them for various criminal offenses.
The demonstration started on Monday evening at the American consulate on Museumplein. The group eventually moved toward Dam Square, where about 100 protesters held a pro-Israel demonstration organized by the Christian party SGP.
The police surrounded part of the group of pro-Palestinian protesters on the corner of Kalverstraat and Dam Square and arrested them for disrupting public order. The police put them on a GVB bus to transport them away.
Several dozen other pro-Palestine demonstrators on the other side of the police action tried to stop the bus from leaving, a police spokesperson told AT5. “Bicycles were pulled from racks and thrown in front of the bus.” The riot police intervened, also striking the protesters.
According to the police, protesters also attacked the police on the bus on the way to the cell complex. “Officers were kicked, scratched, and insulted.”
The riot police also ended a pro-Palestinian rally at Radboud University in Nijmegen. A group of around 50 students occupied a building on campus, demanding that the university break its ties with Israel. After the university asked the protesters to leave, the riot police broke through the barricades and took the protesters outside one by one. The evacuation was completed at around 12:30 a.m. with no arrests, Omroep Gelderland reported.
