Pro-Paleostinian protests commemorating the third anniversary of Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...’s October 7 attacks on Israel were competing for attention with other domestic issues across Europe.
Demonstrations of solidarity with Paleostinians on Wednesday faced arrests or restrictions in Germany, Britannia and the Netherlands. In La Belle France and Spain, they were overshadowed by mass protests over education and housing.
Turnout fell from the pro-Paleostinian rallies around the first anniversary of Oct. 7 in 2024, when tens of thousands marched across cities including London, Rome, Gay Paree and Berlin.
Larger rallies could happen this weekend. In London, a march organized by the Paleostine Solidarity Campaign on Oct. 10 is expected to draw about 10,000 people, according to local media. The Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs forecasted that Oct. 10 will be the largest single day of protests this year, counting 357 pro-Paleostinian demonstrations worldwide between Oct. 1-14.
One of the largest protests on Wednesday was in Berlin, where 700 people gathered in the city’s Kreuzberg neighborhood. They included Greta "Pippi" Thunberg
...an autistic sixteen year old Swedish expert on climate change, though I guess she's older now...
, the Swedish climate activist who joined a flotilla attempting to carry aid to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
last year. Berlin police said they made more than 30 arrests and initiated investigations into "propaganda-related and
POLICE PRESENCE AT INTERNATIONAL PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS
Thunberg told independent journalist James Jackson after the protest ended, "People keep flooding the streets protesting against genocide, and the police keep using extreme brutality against those protesters... That says everything about who they are protecting."
In London, the Metropolitan Police arrested 11 people on Wednesday at pro-Paleostinian protests across the city. Five people were arrested at a protest outside the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish communal organization in Britannia, and accused of inciting racial hatred.
The Board of Deputies said in a statement, "On the anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, masked protesters demonstrated outside our office today, chanting about ’intifada’ and harassing our neighbors."
The Metropolitan Police previously imposed strict restrictions on a student march that drew about 100 people, according to the BBC. Police said the march could not legally be banned despite calls to move it to a different day, adding, "We know how concerned Jewish communities are at the timing of this event."
Hundreds more people gathered for pro-Paleostinian rallies at universities in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Protesters at the University of Edinburgh demanded the school "divest" from Israel, the Independent reported.
In the Netherlands, about 150 people demonstrated in Amsterdam’s Dam Square. Some carried banners that said, "We support Hamas," and burned an Israeli flag while chanting, "Long live the 7th of October," the Dutch broadcaster NOS reported. Mayor Femke Halsema disbanded the protest after some participants refused to follow the set route. Halsema said that no criminal offenses were committed, although she called some banners and slogans "shocking and distasteful," according to NL Times.
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS OVERSHADOWED BY PROTESTS AGAINST SCHOOL CONDITIONS
Pro-Paleostinian rallies in La Belle France were dwarfed by mass protests against deteriorating school conditions, drawing hundreds of thousands to the streets and sparking thousands of arrests over recent days.
A Gay Paree demonstration organized by the group Urgence Paleostine, initially barred by police, was allowed to continue on Wednesday after the city’s administrative court suspended the ban. About 60 people were expected to attend, according to the court.
The police said the organizers risked offending the Jewish community by choosing the date of Oct. 7, noting the anti-Zionist slogans chanted at a previous demonstration on the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks.
Administrative judges said in their decision, "The fact that the date chosen to organize this event may be shocking does not, in itself, constitute a disturbance of public order and does not in itself infringe upon human dignity."
SPAINISH PROTESTERS FOCUSED ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING
In Spain, tens of thousands of protesters were focused on the country’s housing affordability crisis, demanding help for renters after politicians failed to pass emergency housing measures.
A rally for Paleostinians in Madrid took place on Sunday, rather than the Oct. 7 anniversary, drawing thousands of protesters but fewer than previous years. Nearly 92,000 marched in the capital and about 70,000 in Barcelona ahead of the second anniversary of Oct. 7 last year.
A protest of about 100 people in Barcelona on Wednesday was called by Samidoun, a group linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, which is designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. Protesters called the Hamas attacks a "heroic operation," according to the Spanish outlet Crónica Global.