“We came here for safety, but now I am afraid again”
Palestinian mother’s home raided in Amsterdam.

Amal (not her real name) fled war and conflict, seeking safety in the Netherlands. But in November, her home was raided by police, and now her sense of safety has been replaced by anxiety. “I don’t feel safe,” she tells me. “Any sudden loud noise sends me into panic.”

I know Amal from the festive dinners at the community centre where I work. I know her as a cheerful lady wearing a characteristic bonnet who smiles broadly and is always ready to clap along to encourage others to dance. Hearing about the raid and its effects on her family was shocking and disheartening.

Today, Amal is not laughing like usual. Her gaze is heavy. As I greet her, she is staring at an Instagram video showing the Israeli airstrike on Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian refugee camp in Gaza. “These are tents! These screams are children! How can they do this?” she asks, wide-eyed in disbelief and pain. It’s an impossible question, I have no answer or consolation.

Amal’s life has been marked by displacement. Her family fled Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, resettling in Kuwait, where Amal was born. The Iran-Iraq War drove them to Jordan, where Amal, then a teenager, continued her education. Due to her family’s financial difficulties, she couldn’t pursue higher education. She had hoped to study something related to social work. She then travelled to Syria, where her mother’s family lived, and there she married a fellow Palestinian and settled to raise her children.

“These are tents! These screams are children! How can they do this?”

As the war intensified in Syria, Amal feared for her eldest son, Mohammed, as he approached the age for military conscription. “A war between two parties from the same religion – how can that be…?” Amal raises her hands in frustration.

The family decided that Mohammed should leave Syria to avoid being drafted. However, with limited resources, the family couldn’t leave together. So Mohammed, just 17, embarked on a solo journey. He travelled by bus, overcrowded boats, poorly ventilated vans, and on foot, crossing multiple countries to eventually arrive at a refugee centre in Almere, Netherlands, where he sought asylum.

It took Amal and the rest of the family another year to join him, navigating bureaucratic visa hurdles via the embassy in Lebanon before finally reuniting in a refugee centre in Dronten. “I am very grateful to the Dutch people for their hospitality. Here I feel as if I am in my own land, and I feel safe.”

However, in November, Amal’s sense of safety was shaken. “I was in the kitchen preparing food for my family. My son was in his room, and my husband and his sister were watching TV in the living room. Suddenly, I heard a loud explosion.” Amal recalls. It was a police raid. “They broke in without even knocking, as if we were criminals.”

This intrusion was linked to events following the Ajax-Maccabi football match (see editor’s note below for context), where Mohammed was present. Amal explains that her son was merely acting in self-defense from an aggressive confrontation, yet the family’s home was stormed by 10-12 masked police officers.

Amal’s husband, who is a heart patient, had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for shock. Her sister-in-law suffered a nervous breakdown. Amal herself was held in the kitchen, shaking, and prevented from seeing her son.

“Why all this? Mohammed only attends demonstrations to make his voice heard peacefully but there he faces such hatred and aggression: ‘death to Arabs,’ ‘death to muslims,’ ‘death to children of Gaza.’”

The police and media focus on Palestinian demonstrators, rather than on the provocations by some groups at the event

The police and media focus on Palestinian demonstrators, rather than on the provocations by some groups at the event, reflects a broader issue of how such protests are represented and handled. Amal feels powerless and disappointed because focusing on the demonstrators, the world seems to be turning a blind eye to the reason why the protests were happening in the first place – the Israeli occupation and the daily suffering and death of Palestinians.

“My message to Amsterdammers: The right to peacefully demonstrate is extremely important because many people don’t know what Palestine is or what has been happening there. By demonstrating, we make sure that the world hears the story of Palestine. What is happening in Gaza is not right. It’s a genocide,” she says firmly. “The children there have no homes, no food, no water. I want the children of Gaza to live a good life with no war.”

I find it shameful that a family, after enduring so much and fleeing numerous countries, could have their home so violently invaded in supposedly safe and progressive Amsterdam. Worse still, they are denied the right to peacefully advocate for the human rights of the people in the homeland they left behind. Is this how Amsterdam treats refugees?

Amal’s story is a testament to resilience and a call for solidarity. The family set up a GoFundMe page to support activists who have faced fines, job losses, and mounting debts as a result of their activism. You can donate via their GoFundMe, “Als we elkaar helpen, worden problemen opgelost.”

Note from the editor:
Days prior to the raid on Amal’s home violence had erupted in Amsterdam surrounding the Europa League match between Ajax and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv. Despite warnings from local and international organizations and coalitions, the anticipation of a clash was not considered high-risk by Dutch authorities. Groups of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters, including Israeli soldiers who participated in military operations in Gaza, engaged in violent and hateful behaviour before, during, and after the match. They chanted slogans promoting genocide, such as “Let the IDF win,” “F*ck the Arabs,” and “Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there.” These chants reference the devastating toll of Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have resulted in over 43.000 Palestinian deaths, including more than 14.000 children, and the destruction of hundreds of schools, including UN facilities housing displaced Palestinians. The gangs also vandalized homes and businesses in Amsterdam displaying Palestinian flags, tearing them down and burning them, attacked an Arab taxi driver, armed themselves with makeshift weapons, and assaulted individuals perceived to be Arab. Following the football match, groups targeted the Maccabi supporters as they made their way to the city centre, where police responded by dispatching hundreds of riot police. In the days following, clashes between civilians and police continued, drawing international attention. Many organizations and human rights activists in the Netherlands and worldwide are calling for a transparent and professional investigation and full accountability into the events that transpired, as well as police response.

Text: Hanna Rudner
Editor: Sarah Teixeira St-Cyr