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The Netherlands

Airport Disruption Entered Fourth Day; Starmer’s Government A Target

July 28, 2024 The Canary. , , , , , , , , , ,
On Saturday 27 July, peaceful protests took place in at least six cities across six countries in support of Oil Kills – an international uprising to end oil, gas and coal by 2030. Airport disruption was a key feature, again – with more arrests amid blockades. However, in the UK things went up a gear – as activists targeted Keir Starmer’s new Labour Party government. Across the UK, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada, protesters are gathering to demand their governments commit to establishing a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030 as well as supporting and financing poorer countries to make a fast, fair, and just transition.

Dutch Police Smash Pro-Palestine Protest Camp

May 8, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , , , , ,
Riot police bulldozed barricades and temporarily detained 125 people to break up a pro-Palestine student protest at the University of Amsterdam in the early hours of 7 May, Reuters reported. Four of the protesters are still being held on charges of public violence and insulting an officer, while the remainder have been released. Organizers said they were “taking back this campus” in solidarity with Palestine and “in the spirit” of student protests that began in the US in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Along with pro-Palestine demonstrators at universities in the US and Europe, the Dutch students are demanding the university boycott academics and businesses in Israel.

Communities Protest Banking Giant’s Annual Meeting Over Environmental Racism

April 21, 2024 Hannah Sharland, The Canary. , , ,
Activists from the world are uniting against Dutch banking giant ING’s environmental racism. Specifically, at the company’s upcoming AGM they plan to call out ING’s financing of a big polluter and climate-wrecking industries harming marginalised communities throughout the Global North and South. On Monday 22 April community defenders from the US, Mexico, Brazil, Liberia, and the Czech Republic will attend ING’s AGM to call out the company’s financing for destructive big polluters. Fossil fuel finance accountability non-profit BankTrack and Netherlands climate campaign group Fossielvrij have facilitated their travel to Amsterdam, to take on the banking giant at this key meeting.

Shell In Court Over Its ‘Dire’ Exacerbation Of The Climate Crisis

April 2, 2024 The Canary. , , ,
Shell squared off against seven environmental groups in a Dutch appeals court on Tuesday 2 April, with climate activists accusing the multinational oil giant of failing to implement a landmark 2021 judgement – worsening the climate crisis. Judges at the Hague District Court ruled three years ago that Shell must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. They said it was contributing to the “dire” effects of climate change. That ruling was a historic victory for climate change campaigners. It was the first time a company had been made to align its policy with the 2015 Paris climate change accords.

Extinction Rebellion Protested Around The Entire North Sea

March 18, 2024 The Canary. , , , , , , , ,
In an unprecedented act of coordinated international climate protest, Extinction Rebellion activists from the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands protested in solidarity with each other against new North Sea fossil fuels extraction. Under the campaign North Sea Fossil Free acts of civil disobedience happened all around the North Sea. The governments of these six countries are permitting new fossil extraction infrastructure, harming not only the North Sea ecosystem, but also committing the whole world to dangerous levels of warming.

Foreign Fighters From US, France And India Are Fighting Israel’s War

March 7, 2024 Jessica Buxbaum, MintPress News. , , , , , , , , ,
Israelis aren’t the only demographic among the IDF’s forces in Gaza. Foreign fighters from as far away as the United States, France, Spain, the Netherlands and even India actively participate in the hostilities. While the exact number of internationals fighting in Gaza isn’t known, what is known is that citizens from numerous countries appear to be at least complicit in what has been called a genocide. Under Israel’s Law of Return, any individual with at least one Jewish grandparent or spouse can obtain Israeli citizenship. In this regard, many born abroad can serve in Israel’s military while still keeping their birthplace’s nationality. They often emigrate and then serve in the army.

This NGO Won A Climate Case Against Shell; Its Next Target? Dutch Bank ING

January 27, 2024 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
When Royal Dutch Shell lost a landmark climate lawsuit in The Netherlands, climate advocates said the Dutch court’s ruling put polluters and their financiers on notice. Now, the Dutch NGO that successfully sued Shell over its climate plans is taking those financial backers to court in a case that could help reverse the global banking sector’s support of fossil fuel firms and their activities. On January 19, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) announced it is initiating legal action against ING, the Netherlands’ largest bank and a major funder of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG). In a letter addressed to ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk and the first step in litigation,  Milieudefensie says it believes the bank is in breach of its “duty of care” obligation under Dutch law.

Dutch Court Case Looks To Cut Off Military Supplies To Israel

December 12, 2023 David Kattenburg, Mondoweiss. , , , ,
Strolling down the street or along a green pathway in the southern Netherlands, it’s not uncommon to see F-35 stealth bombers roaring overhead. They could be heading up to the Netherlands’ largest F-35 base in northern Leeuwarden, or to another airfield in the southeast. Or, perhaps, returning from an F-35 maintenance base in the southwest, near the small town of Woensdrecht. Woensdrecht Air Base, at the top of the Scheldt estuary, is one of three European ‘logistics hubs’ for Lockheed Martin’s “lethal,” “survivable” and “connected” F-35 Lightning II stealth bomber. F-35 users from across Europe (and Israel) go there to pick up spare parts, under a general license applying to all members of the “international F-35 program.”

Can Extinction Rebellion’s Success In The Netherlands Be Replicated?

December 10, 2023 Douglas Rogers, Waging Nonviolence. , , , , ,
Success in climate activism can take a lot of forms, and relatively few of them are glamorous. The change we work for might be too abstract to measure, or our role in it might be unclear. Perhaps, in difficult conditions, success might mean no more than keeping your head above the water. Still, there are times when success can actually be joyful, epic and infectious, as in the case of the recent blockades on the Dutch capital’s A12 highway. The shortest version of this story is that a multi-year campaign of disruption induced the Dutch Parliament to move, on Oct. 10, towards a phasing-out of fossil fuel subsidies: a truly remarkable moment and concession.

Extinction Rebellion Netherlands: Highway Blockades Worked

October 12, 2023 Extinction Rebellion Netherlands. , , ,
After 27 days of A12 blockades and more than 9,000 arrests, the Lower House is asking the cabinet to come up with a phase-out path for fossil subsidies. Extinction Rebellion welcomes the adopted motion[1], and concludes: civil disobedience works. In the coming months, thousands of rebels will keep a sharp eye on what’s actually being done. They are ready to take to the streets again if necessary. Action training will also continue. Spokesperson Tessel Hofstede: “Although this does not yet abolish fossil fuel subsidies, the significance of this step cannot be underestimated. Recently, with the A12-blockades, we caused shockwaves in society and made people look differently at fossil fuel subsidies.

Dutch Police Use Water Cannon To Clear Climate Activists From Highway

September 11, 2023 Reuters. , , , ,
Police in the Netherlands said they were deploying a water cannon to clear a major highway blocked by climate activists for the third straight day on Monday in protests over government subsidies for fossil fuels. Protesters earlier walked onto the A12 highway at The Hague around noon local time preventing traffic from using it, local police said. News agency ANP said dozens of protesters were blocking the major traffic artery into the Dutch seat of government in both directions. Over the weekend around 3,000 activists were detained by police during two days of protests on and around the A12.

Victory For Palestine In Dutch Court

August 21, 2023 Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. , , , ,
On Tuesday 15 August, a Dutch court confirmed that the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” falls under freedom of expression and is not punishable by law. The court’s verdict represents a victory for the Palestinian movement in general, and in the Netherlands specifically. Expressions for Palestinian liberation cannot simply be labeled as anti-Semitism and thereby criminalized or subjected to persecution. The charge was filed in June 2021 by a Zionist activist against Samidoun Netherlands member Thomas Hofland. The Zionist claimed that Thomas’ statement — “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” — during a speech he gave at the annual Nakba rally one month earlier, was allegedly anti-Semitic.

The Netherlands: Activists Arrested On Runway Of Volkel Air Base

August 10, 2023 Marion Küpker, Nuke Resister. , , ,
In the Netherlands, on the morning of August 8, ten peace and climate activists (six from the U.S., three from the Netherlands and a German doctor) entered Volkel Air Base, where about 15 U.S. nuclear bombs are stockpiled. They knelt on the runway, prayed for peace and glued down copies of Article 1 and 2 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on the runway. They were taken into custody and later released with a small fine, which no one paid. This nonviolent resistance action took place as part of an international peace camp at Volkel Air Base. The radical branches of the climate movement and the peace movement have joined together for a week of protest and action. 

Iranian Victims Of Saddam Hussein’s Chemical Attacks Sue Dutch Companies

June 25, 2023 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , ,
Five victims of chemical attacks launched by the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war are suing two Dutch companies for providing chemical materials that allowed Baghdad to manufacture mustard gas. The two companies — Otjiaha and Forafina Beleggingen — provided Iraq with chemicals between 1982 and 1984 during the Iraqi invasion of Iran. According to the lawsuit filed at The Hague, the Dutch companies were aware at the time that their products were being used to produce chemical weapons used against civilians. However, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant says the corporations dispute the accusations and maintain that the chemicals were meant for use as agricultural pesticides.

Police Use Water Cannons, Mass Arrest At Extinction Rebellion Protest

May 29, 2023 Extinction Rebellion Netherlands. , , ,
The Netherlands- Saturday 27 May, the police deployed water cannons fifteen minutes after the start of the A12 blockade, even though there was no question of a dangerous or threatening situation. 33 people were also arrested who had managed to reach the tunnel of the A12. At least 6000 people and 130 social organizations[1] demonstrated on the A12 or next to it in the support demo. The A12 orchestra also played with more than 80 musicians and 100 scientists from Scientist Rebellion were present. All demonstrators agreed on one simple demand: stop fossil subsidies. From 14:00 this afternoon the police started arresting, in a number of cases violently.
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