Mayor Femke Halsema. Photo: ANP / Robin van Lonkhuijsen
“I will no longer accept the accusation of anti-Semitism or facilitating anti-Semitism,” Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema said in the capital’s city council on Wednesday afternoon. There she said again that the counter-demonstration on the Damrak on October 7 could not have taken place elsewhere.
After questions from JA21 member Cas van Berkel, she lashed out at critics who stated that she had facilitated anti-Semitism by allowing the counter-demonstration. Femke Halsema will no longer tolerate this, she said, “and certainly not, let me put it in general terms, if it comes from people who discriminate against Moroccans and Muslims at the same time. And thus demonstrate that they do not understand what the fight against racism means, of which anti-Semitism is part.” Her comment was met with a loud drumbeat from the council.
More than three hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested on Monday when they tried to get to Dam Square, where a demonstration for Israel was taking place. There were several clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators. On Tuesday evening, Halsema said on the talk show Eva that, according to the law, a counter-demonstration must take place within earshot and within sight of what they are protesting against, and that the Damrak would be the least risky place.
Femke Halsema wants to go to Barcelona
She repeated this again in the city council. The mayor received questions about last Monday’s events from JA21, VVD, Volt, Lijs Ahmadi-Veldhuyzen, PvdA, D66 and GroenLinks. She also stated that she found it distasteful that the counter-demonstration was held on October 7. “But taste cannot be a reason to deprive people of their right to demonstrate.”
She also maintained that the Israel event on Dam Square went well, despite a number of incidents, and that the maximum was done to ensure that. “So it has been well enforced.” Most visitors to the event were taken by buses to the Palace on Dam Square, so that there would be “a safe arrival”. The organization was also informed in advance of the counter-demonstration.
Halsema also joked about Wilders’ message on “I am very happy that I can stay. And if you do have a location in mind for me, I would like to go to Barcelona.”
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