Yesterday was another intense day in the ideological – and sometimes physical – clash between the Dutch authorities and pro-Palestinian groups in the Netherlands.

Like the Hague Parliament they discussed integration issuescitizenship rights and the right to protest, riot police in Amsterdam violently repressed an unauthorized pro-Palestinian protest.

Police brutality in Amsterdam

Following the violent incidents of last week in the run-up to the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer match, authorities in Amsterdam have restricted the right to protest in the city, meaning demonstrations may be relocated or banned altogether.

Yesterday, this new measure resulted in the banning of the pro-Palestinian demonstration organized in Dam Square, which the authorities asked to be moved to Westerpark.

However, when hundreds of protesters defied the ban and showed up at the original location in Dam Square, the police violently repressed them, they report. NOS.

Arrested, banished and beaten

According to NOS, the police arrested a total of 281 people, of which 265 for disobeying the order to leave Dam Square.

Those arrested were then bussed to Western Docklands on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Footage recorded by protesters shows police throwing people off the bus and beating them with batons.

This was confirmed by the police in a statementwhere the authorities also announced that they were investigating the incident.

Taking Dutch passports

While these events were taking place in Amsterdam, in The Hague, Parliament tackled an equally sensitive discussion.

The government coalition considers last week’s events around the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv match as a serious episode of anti-Semitism and quite explicitly points the finger at certain groups of Dutch society, writes NOS.

While discussing the “tough action” to be taken against anti-Semitism, Prime Minister Schoof explicitly referred to a group with a “migratory background” that has “the (back) of society” and “does not share Western values” as being the main target of this action, reports NOS.

PVV and BBB leaders Geert Wilders and Caroline van der Plas suggested that the people involved in last week’s incidents in Amsterdam, who hold dual nationalities, should be stripped of their Dutch passports.

This radical declaration, however, has already drawn widespread criticism, including from experts who questioned its legal feasibility because NOS write.

Want the latest Dutch news delivered via the internet to your inbox? email? Dat kan! Subscribe to DutchReview’s weekly digest