A banner reading "I support Hamas" was raised at Amsterdam's central World War II memorial by protesters on Sunday — the second such occurrence at that site since October 7, 2023. On the plaza facing the National Monument at Dam Square, a green banner carrying the words "We support Hamas" was on display alongside a second banner headed "axis of resistance," beneath which the names Hezbollah, the PFLP, and Islamic Jihad appeared.
A comparable display featuring those banners, or ones closely resembling them, had taken place at that same location on October 7 — the date marking three years since the killings carried out by Hamas in Israel. The gathering, which drew hundreds of participants, broke up after a confrontation involving a pro-Israel individual and the lighting of fireworks by some attendees, according to the Cvandaag news site.
Halsema, Amsterdam's mayor, described the pro-Hamas displays as deeply objectionable yet stopped short of classifying them as acts that carry criminal liability under the law. On multiple occasions, Wilders has taken issue with what he described as Amsterdam mayor Halsema's permissive approach toward demonstrators whose conduct he characterised as hateful and antisemitic. Wilders, who heads the Party for Freedom — currently holding second place among Dutch political parties by size — spoke out against the scenes unfolding in Amsterdam.
At a gathering on Amsterdam's Dam Square on 7 October, where participants displayed a banner carrying the text "We support Hamas," SGP member of parliament Diederik van Dijk submitted 14 written questions to justice and security minister David van Weel, Cvandaag reported. Three separate lines of questioning took shape: whether authorities bore responsibility for not stepping in at an earlier stage, whether laws prohibiting membership in terrorist organisations could be brought to bear on the situation, and what effect gatherings of this kind have on the sense of security felt by Jewish residents.
At Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, video footage and a broadcast news report documented a gathering of several hundred people whose placards and chants included the phrase "yallah intifada," alongside displayed images of Ali Khamenei, who served as Iran's spiritual leader until his death. The Arabic word "intifada" translates literally as "uprising" and has been applied to periods of sustained Palestinian violence directed at Israelis, with some uses of the term extending to attacks targeting Jewish people more broadly.
As of the publication deadline, the press office for Berlin's police had yet to address questions submitted by journalists about the Brandenburg Gate rally — among them whether officers intervened when those gathered chanted calls for an intifada.
