demonstration

Three persons were arrested after a demonstration by anti-Islam movement Pegida in the Utrecht district of Zuilen on Wednesday evening. Towards the end of the demonstration, the situation became unsettled and there were various vandalism incidents. The detainees were counter-protesters, RTV Utrecht reports.

A handful of Pegida supporters gathered at the Abi Bakr Issidik mosque around 7:00 p.m., where they watched a film about Islam in a cordoned off area. A group of opponents gathered outside the fences.

While "yellow vests" protests resulted in 500 arrests in Paris and 400 in Brussels, the protests in the Netherlands were much quieter. The largest protests only had around 200 participants, and only three people were arrested in Amsterdam, RTL Nieuws reports.

To prevent the national arrival of Sinterklaas from getting out of hand, the municipality of Zaandstad is implementing extra security measures and strict rules for protestors. Demonstrators will have fixed areas for their protests, far away from other protesting groups, and there will be access gates and extra searches at the arrival on November 17th, ANP reports.

The area where Sinterklaas arrives, will be closed down with fences. Visitors can only enter through access gates, where bags and jackets will be searched. No glassware or drones will be allowed.

The city of Utrecht will not allow Pegida to demonstrate at the Ulu mosque in the Lombok neighborhood on Wednesday. The municipality offered the anti-Islam movement an alternative location for their demonstration, near the police station in the area, RTV Utrecht reports.

Freedom of speech means that everyone must be able to express their opinion, whatever it may be, Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said at a neighborhood Iftar on Sunday. "No matter how poisonous the message may be, it must be able to be expressed", he said in reaction to him allowing a Pegida pork roasting demonstration at the Laleli mosque in Rotterdam-Zuid last week, ANP reports.

At this time Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs sees no reason to summon the Israeli ambassador for an explanation about the dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded who fell during demonstrations on the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip on Monday, he said to parliament on Tuesday, NU.nl reports. 

A woman was injured and five people were arrested during a protest at the visitor center of nature reserve Oostvaardersplassen near Lelystad on Sunday. The woman was hurt by a police baton, and the five people were arrested for breaking open a gate at the closed visitor center, AD and ANP report.

Being able to demonstrate for or against something you believe in is a fundamental right in the Netherlands. But that right is under pressure, National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen said in a new report, ANP reports.

A protest at Utrecht Centraal on Wednesday evening turned into a confrontation between Kurdish people protesting against Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and counter-protesters. The police intervened and dispersed the protesters, NU.nl reports.

Police union ACP is calling for more transparency on the costs involved in police deployment to demonstrations. "Our plea is that the police will show how many demonstrations there are a year and  what the costs of these demonstrations are", union chairman Gerrit van de Kamp said to RTL Nieuws.

A police horse died during a demonstration by anti-Islam group Pegida in Nijmegen on Sunday. The horse died of heart failure and its death was not caused by its deployment to the demonstration, the Nijmegen police said on Twitter.

The horse collapsed around 2:00 p.m. near the Tunnelweg in Nijmegen. The rider was hurt in the fall. According to the police, the officer is doing "well under the circumstances".