07-10-2025 - Pep speech

Over the past two years, Israel has deliberately — as verified by the New York Times and The Guardian — shot five-year-old children in the head. Israeli soldiers have danced and sung that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, a statement that, according to an Israeli poll last summer, 64% of respondents agreed with. Last year, a soldier said on Israeli television that he can no longer eat meat because he drove his bulldozer over both dead and living Palestinians. And Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu, regularly make blood-curdling statements that would have been punishable under Israeli law just a few decades ago. The genocide enjoys broad support among the Israeli military, Israeli political class, and the Israeli population.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands conducts trade with this country worth 4 billion euros per year, and 50 billion per year is invested in Israel via our country. The Netherlands is directly complicit in this genocide but is stingy even with symbolic opposition, let alone concrete measures.

The only help for the Palestinian population is us — the global public. We are the only ones who can force our leaders to take action. There are countless examples of this from the past, with Apartheid South Africa as the clearest instance. That’s why we’re protesting at Leiden Central on October 7, and every upcoming Thursday, until Palestine is free.