Organisers say 200,000 join Amsterdam rally against Gaza war

At least 200,000 protesters joined the ongoing march in Amsterdam for the country’s fourth “Red Line” rally, demanding tougher action by the Dutch government against Israel’s war on Gaza. The estimated number comes from the rally’s organisers.

The Rights Forum along with 13 other groups, including Amnesty International, PAX and Oxfam Novib, set up the demonstration to demand the Dutch government stop buying Israeli weapons and impose sanctions on the country for war crimes.

Extra transport has been put in place, including more metros and longer NS trains to Amsterdam. Trams and buses around Museumplein are being diverted. The rally starts on Museumplein at 1pm with speeches, followed by a march through Amsterdam Zuid and Oud-West from 1.45pm to 4pm.

Previous Red Line rallies have drawn huge crowds. Organisers estimated turnout at more than 100,000 in The Hague in May 2025, 150,000 in The Hague in June 2025 and 250,000 in Amsterdam last October.

There has been some controversy in the run-up to the protest. Prime Minister Rob Jetten, who joined a previous Red Line protest as D66 leader, said at his weekly press conference on Friday that he would not be attending this one and that it would be inappropriate for him to do so now that he is prime minister.

Some of the speakers at the rally have also been accused of links to Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups. These include Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS boycott movement, and Medhat Alamawi of the Palestinian Community Netherlands, who is also involved with activist group Utrecht4Palestine.

The Rights Forum spokesman Edwin van ’t Pad dismissed the criticism, telling newssite de Kanttekening: “Even if we had put the pope on stage, the right would have accused us of antisemitism and Hamas sympathies.”

It also comes at a time when the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is coming under increasing pressure from the Trump administration. In July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick, if necessary”, partly in response to the court’s investigation of Israeli officials.

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