Anti-Israel protesters block traffic for hours in Netherlands in ‘disruption’ action

Thousands of vehicles were blocked for hours today by anti-Israel protesters on a highway near the Dutch city of Utrecht.

An angry motorist stepped out of his car. Unlike many other motorists on the A27, the man’s complaint was not about the road blockage. “That slogan they’re chanting? ‘From the River to the Sea?’ That’s a call for genocide. Are you going to allow it?” the man asked a policeman.

The officer gave his standard answer: “We will intervene when and if the disturbance is deemed no longer manageable.”

The blockage was part of a global initiative known as A15 that aims to disrupt commerce to raise awareness to what organizers say is a “genocide” in Gaza. The protesters scattered after three hours.

Multiple participants in the protest interviewed by The Times of Israel said they were opposed to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

“The Jews that came there after 1948, I don’t think they should be there,” said Emmie Vronk, a 23-year-old Dutch-born social worker.

A 26-year-old man who identified as Cena (he declined to give his last name), a leader of the protest and member of the Rolling for Palestine local activists’ group, said: “Jews have no more right to form a Jewish state in Palestine than Christians or Muslims. Only indigenous Palestinians belong there.” He is “an Afghan who “has Dutch citizenship.” He declined to say whether that means he’s Dutch, repeating the unusual formulation.

Stefan Mijgens, 46, was among the stranded motorists. He identified with the protesters’ message against war in Gaza but found it “unfair that we are made to suffer,”  as he was late for a meeting.