Caribbean Netherlands: Amsterdam hosts Nakba day march, commemorating Great Catastrophe.

SHOTLIST: AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (MAY 16, 2026) 1. VARIOUS OF PARTICIPANTS HOLDING BANNERS AND PALESTINIAN FLAGS, CHANTING SLOGANS/ SOME PROTESTERS DELIVERING SPEECHES/ PARTICIPANTS MARCHING/ PEOPLE THROWING SHOES AT PHOTOS OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AND OTHER ISRAELI OFFICIALS AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS - MAY 16, 2026: A march was held in Amsterdam on Saturday, May 16, marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba (Great Catastrophe), which Palestinians commemorate as the beginning of the mass displacement following the establishment of Israel in 1948. Hundreds of people gathered at Dam Square to protest Israel’s actions and to mark the anniversary, with demonstrators calling for Palestinian rights and an end to what they described as ongoing violence. Protesters carried banners reading “78 years of Nakba, genocide, displacement and occupation,” “Free Palestine,” and “End Israel’s impunity and Europe’s complicity,” and chanted slogans including “Bibi, you are no different from Hitler, only your names differ.” Participants also carried Palestinian flags and banners and chanted slogans in support of Palestine. After speeches, the demonstrators marched through the city before returning to Dam Square. Speaking at the event, Mohammed Kotesh said the Nakba represents the beginning of injustice and that it continues today. He said the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip is not an exception but the bloodiest chapter of the ongoing Nakba, adding that the occupying force continues to use the same doctrine of “killing, intimidation, and displacement.” Palestinians commemorate May 15 as the “Nakba” (“Great Catastrophe”) following Israel’s declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, and the subsequent forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes. During the Nakba, Israel expelled nearly 1 million Palestinians from their homes and destroyed 675 Palestinian towns and villages. More than 70 massacres were carried out by Zionist militias, killing over 15,000 Palestinians This year’s anniversary comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues and military operations escalate in the West Bank, amid Palestinian warnings of renewed displacement attempts targeting Palestinians. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and wounded over 172,000 others, while causing massive destruction to homes, infrastructure, and vital facilities, in addition to a severe humanitarian crisis driven by siege conditions and shortages of food, water, and medicine. Reporting by Abdullah Asiran / Writing by Ayse Elif Erdis