Hague Draws 'Red Line' As Thousands Rally For Gaza (image-X/CjvHenderson)
On Sunday, tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protestors gathered, wearing all red, to oppose Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and to call on the government to take a stronger stance. The huge crowd consisting of nearly 150,000 people marched through the streets of The Hague for the second time in four weeks towards the International Court of Justice.
By wearing the red dress, the rally aimed to create a symbolic “red line” which the government had failed to set to halt Israel’s war on Gaza, said the rights groups, Amnesty International and Oxfam, who were among the organisers.
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According to the Common Dreams report, the rally is said to be the country’s largest demonstration in two decades. “The Dutch cabinet still refuses to draw a red line. That is why we do it, for as long as necessary,” Marjon Rozema of Amnesty International Netherlands said in a statement.
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The protestors had walked a 5-kilometre loop around the city centre of The Hague to symbolically create the red line. NGOs such as Amnesty International, Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), and Oxfam organised the demonstration.
The demonstrators during the rally sang, delivered speeches and marched past the courthouse which is now hearing a case by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide during its war on the besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera reports that the huge demonstration is a clear indication that most of the people in the Netherlands reject their government’s support for Israel.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof said that the “unprecedented” thousands of people in The Hague raised their voices with “concerns, anger and frustration”.
Responding to the march, Schoof wrote on X, “The Netherlands remains committed to stopping the violence and ending the humanitarian blockade. We are constantly looking at how we can be most effective with our efforts, both in front of and behind the scenes, to improve the situation on the ground. To all those people in The Hague, I say: ‘We see you and we hear you.’ Our goal is ultimately the same: to end the suffering in Gaza as soon as possible.”
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The people across the world had been staging demonstrations including in Belgium, Turkiye, Brazil, and Greece as nearly 55,300 Palestinians have now been killed since October 7.
