Reports found one of the main protest organizers to be PGNL, a prominent member of the extensive Hamas-affiliated network in the Netherlands, led by a self-described former teacher at UNWRA.
The organized violent antisemitic rampage which took place in Amsterdam Thursday night shocked many in the European continent and beyond. Now, several days later, more and more information regarding the events and the organizers began to flow, with findings pointing to a PGNL, a Hamas-affiliated group active in the Netherlands, as a main organizer of the anti-Israel protests in the country.
The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) published an exposé showcasing how, on November 6, local authorities decided to cancel a preplanned protest against the Maccabi Ajax FC football game scheduled for 19:00 on November 7. However, the organizers did not give up and posted an invite to a new protest, which cautioned attendees to arrive in small groups, conceal Keffiyehs and Palestinian flags, and openly specified “This is a direct clash with our enemy (IOF and Mossad). Even if we do not get our desired location, we will not give up”; warning those under 18 not to attend the protest and calling to “prepare ourselves to deal with grave violence.”
NCRI’s exposé highlighted that one of the main planners of these protests is an organization innocently named “The Palestinian Community in the Netherlands” (Palestijnse Gemeenschap In Nederland – PGNL), a group which organizes protests and “actions” across the Netherlands, with active groups on instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
According to a report by the European Leadership Network (ELNET) released last month, PGNL forms part of the Hamas-affiliated network in the Netherlands and Europe, as it was led for years by Amin Abu-Rashid, a designated Hamas official who was arrested by Dutch authorities in mid-2023 following accusations of transferring funds to Hamas. The ELNET report highlights that, in addition to organizing many of the recent pro-Hamas protests in the Netherlands, PGNL has hosted the late former Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh in 2007 over a video conference, and hosted an event saluting former Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2016.
Following Abu-Rashid’s arrest, PGNL is led nowadays by Ayman Nejmeh, who appeared in the NCRI exposé as an administrator at one of PGNL’s instant messaging app groups. Nejmeh is a Syrian-born activist who described himself on his Facebook profile as a former UNRWA teacher, and who spoke at a pro-UNRWA rally in February. However, at some point in the past couple of days, Nejmeh decided to delete his affiliation with UNRWA from his Facebook profile for unknown reasons. In any case, Nejmeh himself has posted pro-Hamas content in the past on his Facebook page as well, including a picture of an al-Qassam militant.
