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Beirut Lemons Special From Amsterdam By : Lenie van Malde
Protest demonstration in Dutch capital Amsterdam against the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza

On the 22th of July there was a protestdemonstration in Amsterdam in the Netherelands: “Ring the Emergency Bell”, organized by a left wing party “Groen Links” and by the Dutch-Palestinian Committee. It started at one o’clock with a speech by somebody from the “International Socialists” ending with “Ya Beirut”, from Fairuz. People started to cry. Then the march started through the city by a quite diverse looking crowd. Many Lebanese flags, many Palestinian flags, a few Hezbollah flags. There was even a flag from Saudi Arabia, which was quite remarkable, considering the relation between the two countries. A turkish flag and a communist flag. And many many banners against the violence and destruction.

All kinds of people joined the demonstration. Many people would have been in Lebanon if the war hadnot broken out, some just returned. A lot Lebanese came in groups from different parts of the Netherlands, Palestinians who came here as refugees and live here already for a long time, Dutch who married Lebanese walked together with their children and a lot of Dutch people who are otherwise involved and worried about the situation in Lebanon. Some thousands of people were present. Now and then some slogans were yelled. Many Christians, Muslims, Atheists and Jews (“donot do to others what you donot want to be done to yourself”, on the protestpapers they carried on their bodies. People who were dressed in a very religious way and people who liked to show their shapes, people of all ages and children.


At the end of the march there were speeches from all kinds of organizations and people obviously differed from opinion on many subjects, but they had one issue in common: the violence should stop and Israël should stop. At the end a Lebanese young woman expressed her fear and sorrow about the incredible destructing and killing and about the whole world that witness this and suddenly the rain started to pour down from the sky. She scried: “Stay! Here it is raining water. There it is raining bombs!”. People looked for a shelter under huge different flags which some held above their heads . They were pressed together. When the thunder started someone shouted ”the Israëli’s”. And with the next heavy thunder: “Allahu Akbar”. There was a sense of unity between extremely different people sheltering together as a wish to Lebanon.

Pictures by Abdelghafour el Bacha - From Ministry of Bla di Bla Blog