Utrecht charges several protesters for accosting mayor Dijksma at city council meeting

The municipality of Utrecht filed charges against a “small number” of protesters who disrupted a city council meeting last week when a motion to boycott Israel was shot down. These are people who tried to prevent Mayor Sharon Dijksma from returning to the meeting after she walked them out, the mayor wrote to the city council, NOS reports.

The decision to press charges was made after consultation with the Public Prosecution Service (OM), Dijksma said.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupted the city council meeting on Tuesday evening when a citizen’s motion to boycott Israeli products and organizations failed. Dijksma did not want to call in the police, so she walked the demonstrators out herself. There, several tried to prevent her from returning to the city hall.

“There was a physical fight in front of the door to prevent me from entering,” Dijksma said after the incident. “Blows were exchanged there, and I was actually in the middle of it.”

Dijksma’s security guards pulled her out and drove her away by car. She returned to the council chamber through the back entrance and resumed the meeting.