Numbers, that’s what it’s all about on the second red line demonstration. « Then the government can’t think: those are all confused lazy »

Just snare the laces of his Nikes and then hop up, the Malieveld. Phone in one hand, red uniqlo jacket in the other. In fact, nurse Youssef Hassenoudi (29) did not want to be here at all this Sunday, but in Rafah. Hand out medicines to children. But when he took the plane with a group of doctors for Gaza last week, they were stopped at Cairo airport and immediately sent back. « You just can’t see what is happening there in Gaza. »

But Massaoudi is not crazy either. His cousin is married to a Palestinian and he follows the news closely. He never thought of demonstrating before October 7. Prefer chilling, nice to the beach, just like his friends. « I thought, what matters. » But his first time demonstrating, last year in Amsterdam, was impressive. And the previous red line demonstration even more. « And, » Massagoudi smiles, « you should see now. »

He dives into the crowd in search of the group of fellow nursers who was along towards Rafah.

« Mr. Schoof, » sounds from the stage, « how many still have to die before you have the red line … » Meanwhile, the crowd of crowds gets ready to leave. Young, old, mixed audience. Red polos, red headscarves, red football shirts.

A red line through the city is the idea. Just like on May 18, then according to the organizers, including Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, more than one hundred thousand people participated in the Mars. The biggest demonstration in twenty years. The silent hope of many participants this Sunday afternoon in The Hague is that they surpass that number together this time.

Watermelon on a stick

« Come, we will walk, » says Alya (7), while her mother has just wrapped the markers and the picnic rug. It is the first time that they demonstrate as a family, says mother Ylva Dantuma (42). Also with a man and a three -year -old child, and the neighbor. But it doesn’t disappoint them. There is a whole field with families. Dantuma believes it is important to give her children that conflict is in the world and that there are emotions, « and that you can express it with solidarity. »

And no, her daughter doesn’t look a journal. How you explain all this to a seven -year -old was still a search. Dantuma: « I said that we in the Netherlands have a government that makes decisions, but that we do not agree with them. » With a smile: « And that we all have more power than the government. »

Numbers, that’s what it’s all about. How many will they be this time? When the march starts towards the Peace Palace, that is the question you hear everywhere.

Halfway through, Mirjam Debets (31) Krista Jongsma (39) still have to wait a while, because a joint friend, « real Extinction rebellion, » changes his baby further on.

« Ooh wow! That’s amaazing!  » Calls a woman who takes a picture of their watermelon on a stick, « says Debets. « The baby probably ate the baby. »

Mixed bubbles

They also visited a climate march, with the Women’s March and once at an XR demonstration on the A12. But the public today with this demonstration is more diverse, they notice. Young, old, man, female and all nationalities. And the atmosphere is calm, calm. Not like with XR, « that is mainly with a stretched leg in it. » And also fewer megaphones than with those other demonstrations. Jongsma: « Calm is perhaps good. Because central is the statement to the government. » Debets: « Show that you are a mass and not statistics. »

« Do you already have an idea how many people there are? » Hans van Hessen (92), a little further, sits down on his walker, red towel around his neck. Numbers are important, he says. « That makes an impression. That means that the government cannot think: they are all confused lazy. »

Van Hessen has some difficulty with his eyes and that is why Jeroen Pek and Sandra Bonckaert help him through the crowd. Pek: « You do have a deviation to the left. »

Van Hessen met the couple here and coincidentally they have all experienced one of the greatest demonstrations in the Netherlands, against the cruise missiles in Amsterdam. In fact, Pek and Bonckaert met there. Pek: « Afterwards in the cafe. » Bonckaert: « And now we are married and have two children. »

But this demonstration, they agree on that, they think more true. Van Hessen: « At that time, people were particularly afraid of their own hachie, that’s why there were so many. » Pek: « That was really a left thing, much more organized from politics. » Bonckaert: « I see many more mixed bubbles here. »

« And? 150,000 I heard! » Back on the Malieveld, Youssef Massaoudi, the nurse from Leiden, cannot suppress a smile. He has no longer found his group of co -volunteers from doctors for Gaza. « I just kept walking, in increasingly higher gear, but there was no end to it. »

It doesn’t matter, says Massenoudi, the red jacket knotted around its waist. « The point is that the movement grows. The more the better. And at some point the government can no longer get away from it. »

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