Dutch Police Seize Scores at Pro-Palestinian Rally after Football Unrest

 Pro-Palestinian protesters face Dutch police during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands November 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face Dutch police during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands November 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Dutch Police Seize Scores at Pro-Palestinian Rally after Football Unrest

 Pro-Palestinian protesters face Dutch police during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands November 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian protesters face Dutch police during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands November 10, 2024. (Reuters)

Dutch police took away more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters on Sunday who defied a ban on demonstrations in Amsterdam following clashes this week involving Israeli football fans.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the capital's Dam Square, chanting "Free Palestine" and "Amsterdam says no to genocide", in reference to the Gaza war.

Israel denies allegations of genocide in its more than year-long offensive against Palestinian group Hamas.

After a local court ratified the city council's ban, police moved in, instructing protesters to leave and rounding up more than 100 of them, according to a Reuters journalist.

They were put on buses and dropped off on the outskirts of the city, police spokesperson Ramona van den Ochtend said, without confirming how many had been picked up.

One protester was taken to an ambulance bleeding.

The ban, which authorities extended for another four days until Thursday, has been in place since Friday after attacks on Israeli football supporters following a match between visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam.

At least five people were injured in assaults that Dutch authorities and foreign leaders including Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced as antisemitic.

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Protest organizers said in a message on Instagram that they were outraged by the "framing" of unrest around the match as antisemitic and called the protest ban draconian.

"We refuse to let the charge of antisemitism be weaponized to suppress Palestinian resistance," they said.

Four people remain detained on suspicion of violent acts, including two minors. Another 40 people have been fined for public disturbance and 10 for offences including vandalism.

As well as suffering attacks by what the mayor called "antisemitic hit-and-run squads", visiting Israeli fans burned a Palestinian flag and used sticks, pipes and rocks in clashes with opponents, according to a video and police report.

Before the match against Ajax, Maccabi fans tore a Palestinian flag off a building in Amsterdam and chanted anti-Arab slogans on their way to the stadium. There were also reports of Maccabi fans starting fights.

Local police chief Olivier Dutilh told the court on Sunday that the protest ban was still needed as antisemitic incidents were continuing, including people being pushed out of taxis and told to show their passports on Saturday night.

The Netherlands has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents since the Gaza war began in October last year.

More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and millions displaced in Israel's military offensive on Gaza, according to health officials there, launched after Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage in a cross-border attack, according to Israel.



Public Mourns 35 Killed in Attack at Sports Complex in Southern Chinese City

 A man offers flowers outside the "Zhuhai People's Fitness Plaza" where a man rammed his car into people exercising at the sports center, in Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong province on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP)
A man offers flowers outside the "Zhuhai People's Fitness Plaza" where a man rammed his car into people exercising at the sports center, in Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong province on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Public Mourns 35 Killed in Attack at Sports Complex in Southern Chinese City

 A man offers flowers outside the "Zhuhai People's Fitness Plaza" where a man rammed his car into people exercising at the sports center, in Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong province on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP)
A man offers flowers outside the "Zhuhai People's Fitness Plaza" where a man rammed his car into people exercising at the sports center, in Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong province on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP)

Members of the public paid their respects Wednesday to people killed by a driver who rammed into people exercising a sports complex in southern China, as the country mourned, but little information was available about the suspect or the victims in the attack.

The crash Monday night in Zhuhai killed 35 people and severely injured 43 others, and the driver was detained as he was trying to escape. Authorities said the 62-year-old man with the surname Fan was upset over his divorce settlement.

Members of the public had started bringing flowers in honor of the victims Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday.

There was a light police presence in the morning at the Zhuhai sports complex, which was closed until further notice, but the number of officers increased as the morning passed.

While police allowed people to leave bouquets of flowers in memory of the dead just outside the entrance of the sports complex, volunteers then quickly moved the flowers inside to the sports center.

“May there be no thugs in heaven,” said the message on one bouquet. “Good deeds will be rewarded and evil deeds will be punished.”

The attack occurred on the eve of the Zhuhai Airshow, an aviation exhibition sponsored by the People's Liberation Army that is held every two years.

China authorities often make extra efforts to tightly control information around major or sensitive events like the airshow. Censors also take extra care around major catastrophes or violence, often censoring eyewitness accounts. Clear information on the death and injury toll was not available for almost 24 hours after the attack.

Videos were quickly censored inside China, though they circulated outside the Great Firewall. They were posted by Teacher Li, an artist turned dissident who runs a X account with 1.7 million followers that posts crowdsourced videos about news in China.

Articles from Chinese media featuring interviews with survivors were quickly taken down Monday and Tuesday. The news that trended about the attack was largely based on official statements from authorities.

Police said their preliminary investigation found Fan was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce. Beyond that description, further information was not available on his divorce or alleged motive.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “strict” punishment of the perpetrator according to law, in a statement Tuesday evening.

He also called on all local governments “to strengthen prevention and control of risks at the source, strictly prevent extreme cases from occurring, and to resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner,” according to the official Xinhua news agency.