On Sunday May 18 more than 100,000 people marched in The Hague against Dutch support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. This was the largest demonstration in The Netherlands for at least two decades. The demonstrators were all dressed in red to symbolically draw a “red line”, demanding that the Dutch government take action against Israel’s genocide on the Palestinian people. The demonstrators marched from the Malieveld, a big public field close to the central railway station, to the Peace Palace, home of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and back.

It was a powerful expression of the changing mood in Dutch society. For many people it was the first time they participated in a demonstration. In interviews in the media several participants said they could no longer live with themselves watching the genocide evolving before their eyes and doing nothing.

The march was initiated by a coalition of human rights organisations and pro-Palestinian advocacy groups. Among them were Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Pax, Oxfam Novib, The Rights Forum and Plant an Olive Tree. Some 90 organisations supported the call for the march. The most significant of these was the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV), the biggest Trade Union which organises a million workers from various sectors. The FNV members assembly voted 86 percent in favor of supporting the march and to advertise it on its social media.

This is a big change for the FNV. Many FNV-members have been campaigning for a clear stand against the Dutch support for Israel since the beginning of the genocide, but until recently the FNV leadership has refused to do so.

In the week leading up to the march in The Hague there were several smaller demonstrations and other events commemorating the Nakba and protesting the current genocide. On Nakba Day, May 15, there were sit-ins in railway stations in 12 cities, plus demonstrations in several other places.

In Utrecht, there was a Nakba commemoration in which a delegation of the City Council participated. A week earlier the Council adopted a motion by Bij1 (‘Together’, an anti-racist and anti-colonialist party that is no longer represented in national parliament) to acknowledge the fact that Israel is committing genocide and to use the word ‘genocide’ to refer to the Israeli assault on Gaza in all its communications. After the commemoration, people marched to the student encampment at the library of Utrecht University, which was renamed Hasan Eslaiah Building after the Palestinian journalist who was killed in his hospital bed in an Israeli air strike at the Nasser Hospital while receiving treatment for a previous Israeli assassination attempt. The students who demanded that the University cuts all ties with Israeli institutions won a partial victory on Friday 16 May when the University Board proclaimed it would not enter into any new ties with Israeli institutions and would sever ties with Haifa University. It will, however, continue its projects with other Israeli institutions.

Also, in Rotterdam and Nijmegen, students reoccupied campuses to demand that the Universities cut all ties with Israel.

On May 17, the day before the big Red Line demonstration in The Hague, there was a Nakba commemoration and a strong militant march for liberation in Amsterdam organised by the Palestinian Community in the Netherlands (PGNL). The PGNL has been the driving force for many of the demonstrations in the Netherlands. The same day, residents in the Utrecht neighborhood of Lombok mobilised in a silent march through the main street of the neighborhood and listened afterwards to speeches by Palestinians who live in Utrecht and several pro-Palestinian activists.

All these protests reflect a shift in the consciousness of people in Holland. Pro-Israel sentiment has always been quite strong in Dutch society, but has eroded since the beginning of the genocide. This is reflected in opinion polls that show that the percentage of people supporting the Dutch collaboration with Israel is continually decreasing. A recent opinion poll showed that a tipping point has been reached and that almost half of the Dutch population agrees that what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide, and only 24 percent still support Dutch governmental policies on Israel/Palestine.

The Netherlands is ruled by a coalition of conservative and far-right parties and has always been one of the most supportive countries of Israel in Europe. It collaborates with the Israeli military in several ways, and it is also a strong diplomatic and political supporter of Israel. It’s one of the few countries that has consistently abstained in the General Assembly of the United Nations on resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza. Even when staunch supporters of Israel like the UK, Germany and Australia voted in favor of an immediate ceasefire in December 2024, the Netherlands abstained.

It’s clear that there is a big discrepancy between the policies of the government and the feeling of many of the people. According to the most recent poll even voters for the governing coalition want the government to take a more critical stand against Israel. A majority of the voters for the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and New Social Contract and a plurality of the voters for the right-wing populist Movement of Farmers and Civilians want less support for Israel. Only the voters for the fascist Freedom Party, the biggest party in the coalition, led by Geert Wilders who is a fanatical Zionist, are happy with the line of the government or want more support for Israel.

The voters for left-wing and progressive opposition parties are almost unanimously in favor of a break with the current policies of support for the Israeli genocide.