A year since October 7th on Dam square. Fascism is no longer creeping, it’s here in plain sight.

I had organically decided to spend October 7th, the one-year commemoration of the Hamas attack on Israel, on Dam Square and to attend my first Zionist demo. It’s not something I initially chose for. I would have stuck with the anti-genocide crowd, which is my crowd, stuck with what I stand for and believe in, but given that when I arrived around 14:00, my crowd was being kettled out of the square by a massive deployment of police forces… I was left with little choice. I was also, understandably, really curious to know what all the fuss was about. I had to know who protested in favour of genocide one year into this disgusting thing, 76 years into the occupation of Palestine. Who is driven to stand up in solidarity with Israel, after seeing a barrage of dismembered corpses on their timeline for 365 days and counting?

I waited for the police to cordon off, with an excess of presence, all possible entryways into Dam Square: the Dam, the Damrak, Paleisstraat, Mozes en Aaronstraat, Nieuwendijk, by foot, by van, on horseback. I waited for an inflatable stage to be put up. I waited for the camera livestream to be set in place, for screens to go up, and for a reference to the organizers to make its way on screen. I waited, and others waited with me, sitting, strolling, whispering. We were a handful. There were, until around 15:00, more pigeons and tourists and cops on the Dam than there were pro-Israel supporters, which gave me hope.

But as the screens lit up, revealing the event’s organizers, my hope was quickly dashed. The protesters supporting genocide weren’t who I’d expected, but their presence was still sickening. They were imports from the Dutch Bible Belt, led by a born-again Christian named Jacques Brunt. Zionism, it turns out, often aligns with Christian beliefs, as they see the establishment of a Jewish state as a prerequisite for Jesus’s second coming. Yes, really — don’t ask!

Nine busloads of folks from the Bible Belt, waving flags proclaiming love — for Israel, of course, and for and from Jesus — but not for Palestine. Their love, it seemed, had limits.

These same folks didn’t hesitate to spit at, pull, and scream at anyone who challenged their Christian Zionist bubble. With the full cooperation of the Amsterdam police, they ensured that anyone who dared speak up in defense of Palestine was swiftly removed and arrested.

A few people tried. Several women chanting “Free Palestine!” broke the mood and were grabbed away. One homeless man unfurling a banner, crying, was bodied to the ground by cops, then hidden away from view by other cops on horseback. A boy holding a Palestinian flag on his shoulders was escorted out and then arrested. Another group of boys that pointed a fuck you to the sky were surrounded by cops twice their size and bullied.

There’s a recording of the demonstration on Dam Square on Jaques Brunt’s YouTube channel. It’s entitled “Israël manifestatie • De Dam Amsterdam • 7 oktober 2024 (verbeterde opname).”(1) If you happen to scroll until around 42:32 minutes in, you’ll see a large Israel flag being rolled out on the square, big enough to cover the whole thing. And on its right-hand corner, you’ll see a splash of red. One solitary woman walked through the crowd and gave the attendants a lasting reminder of the blood that is being spilled in Palestine every day in the name of this flag. She smeared the flag with red paint, a small act of resistance, and was swiftly carried away by cops.

A few streets away, hundreds of people continued to stand up for Palestine, conveniently taken away from the view of the Israel demo despite their right to be within sight and sound of what they were protesting. Eventually, they would also end up being arrested, illegally displaced, kettled, hit, and humiliated for standing up for humanity.

Geert Wilders, fascist party leader in chief, would later post on X “that scum” should be expelled from the Netherlands, above a picture of youth protesting for Palestine. The youth in question just happened to be teens of colour. He furthermore suggested that the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, “can go along.”(2)

Later that night, a commemoration of the October 7th attack was held at the Rav Aron Schuster Synagogue in Amsterdam. Among the attendees were Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Dilan Yeşilgöz, Geert Wilders, Caroline van der Plas, Annabel Nanninga, and others — an array of fascists in word and practice. Some have multiple references to racism and antisemitism to their reputation, further giving credence to the reality that Israel is not a construction aimed at safeguarding Jewish wellbeing, but rather is supported historically by figures that wanted nothing else than to make sure actual Jewish voices are kept as far away as possible. Wilders, a non-Jewish man and outspoken xenophobe, apparently shedding a tear for the victims of October 7th while wearing a yarmulke in the synagogue. Meanwhile, Nanninga attended a demo in Amstelveen on the same day to commemorate October 7th.(3) And all of this for Western values, I’m sure. And those Western values? Genocide and racism.

I couldn’t help but wonder: Is it really worth it to align with the devil just to secure an ethno-state? Surely this farce has gone too far.

The remaining anti-genocide protesters, the hundreds that stood up for Palestine on the day and were not arrested or administratively displaced by Mayor Halsema(4) gathered at sit-ins in Amsterdam Central, which were replicated across the country, in The Hague, Leiden, Leeuwarden, Rotterdam, and so on. The train station’s main entrance vibrated with chants, claps, and stomping.

On October 7th, Amsterdam, the diverse, just, vibrant, young, and loud, said “no” to genocide. But its administrative structures, working hand-in-hand with the upper echelons of Dutch politics, did everything in their power to facilitate fascism. For those who couldn’t be present to witness the protests in person, a skewed picture of what took place was peddled by the main media channels, obscuring what Zionism stands for. Exposing it and standing against it are moral imperatives for us all, even if it might seem that our gestures amount to nothing more than splashing a cup of red paint on a flag the size of a square.

As I’m writing this on October 20th, at least 87 people were registered as killed or missing in the latest Israeli strikes on Beit Lahiya, Israeli forces have detained at least 30 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, and the death toll in Gaza has reached a registered 42,603 (but with all those still missing under the rubble, the real figures are closer to a whopping 180,000)(5), while the death toll in Lebanon has risen to almost 2,500 people.

We can, and we must, resist this.

Links online:
1) youtu.be/JP2TozFrPDY?si=QRXmVRPdV31QpRnB&t=2549
2) nltimes.nl/2024/10/08/wilders-says-adam-mayor-can-leave-nl-pro-palestine-scum-320-protesters-arrested
3) nos.nl/collectie/13959/artikel/2539979-aanslagen-7-oktober-herdacht-in-synagoge-amsterdam
4) at5.nl/artikelen/228942/halsema-tegendemonstratie-moest-binnen-zicht-en-gehoorafstand
5) aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/8/gaza-toll-could-exceed-186000-lancet-study-says