“This protest has nothing to do with anti-Semitism,” Alexander van Stockum, one of the demonstrators, told AFP on Sunday. “It’s against the Israeli hooligans who have been destroying our city.”
Others told a Reuters reporter: “We refuse to let accusations of anti-Semitism be used as a weapon to suppress Palestinian resistance.”
The news agency reported that more than 100 people were detained for participating in the protest. Amsterdam police confirmed that they had been arrested, but did not yet say how many.
After the protest was banned, Dutch activist Frank van der Linde applied for an urgent permit to hold Sunday’s demonstration.
At X, he said he wanted to protest what he called the “genocide in Gaza,” adding: “We will not allow our right to demonstrate to be taken away.”
Mr Van der Linde was overruled by the Amsterdam District Court, which wrote on Sunday that “the mayor has rightly decided that there is a ban on demonstrations in the city this weekend”.
The Dutch national newspaper De Telegraaf reports that Mr Van der Linde was among those arrested.
Earlier, the Israeli embassy in the Netherlands warned Israelis in Amsterdam to avoid Dam Square, saying the event “could lead to significant violent incidents”.
Israel’s National Security Council ordered its citizens to avoid public demonstrations of “any kind” and to hide “anything that could identify you as an Israeli/Jew,” citing Thursday’s attacks.
“Preparations to harm Israelis have been detected in several European cities, including Brussels (Belgium), major cities in Great Britain, Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Paris,” the report said.
Paris’ police chief has promised that 4,000 officers will be deployed at the stadium and across the French capital for the League of Nations match on November 14.
