Introduction to Dutch 4th and 5th May:
In the Netherlands we celebrate our WW2 liberation on the 5th of May which is a national holiday "Liberation day". There are music festivals all around the country and people enjoy this often sunny spring day to celebrate our freedom, democracy and our privileges.
As the Netherlands suffered heavily during WW2 (especially the civilian population in the late stages of the war) We mourn the Dead of the war, (more recently any one who died in a war since ww2) by having 2 minutes of silence at 20:00 hours on May the 4th and have flags half-mast across the nation. There are remembrance services all over the nation at local monuments and these are attended by hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life and ages. The king and PM attend a national service in the center of Amsterdam which is broadcast on all Dutch channels and watched by millions (national and commercial stations, by choice). Public life grinds to a halt around eight o'clock. Busses, Trains, even cabs in transit will stop on route; the third biggest European Airport Schiphol has a planned 4 minute gap in arrivals/departures, Drivers park their cars on parking spots along the highway, shops are closed early, pizza delivery boys pause and stand to attention and restaurants ask guests to respect the 2 min silence. Our nation literally stands still and is silent for 2 minutes on May 4th.
Even 73 years after the War this is still a highly respected national ceremony moment backed by an overwhelming majority of our population (93%) across the political spectrum. The combination with remembrance/mourning/"standing still at the destruction of war" and then celebrating freedom the day after makes this a very special communal national experience. As an example here is footage of the 2017 ceremony.
Enter professional activists.
In 2015 a twitter campaign was started #geen4meivoormij ( No 4th of may for me). A girl posted this picture on twitter and argued that the remembrance is racist and she wouldn't respect it. She appeared to be part of a small "professional" action group that reasoned:
As the recent inclusion of remembering "all those who died during war situations" implies that we remember the Dutch soldiers that fought in the Indonesian revolutionary war, but not the death of the civilians they killed..... this ceremony hence is discriminating.
So according to this group, the whole national remembrance moment is deemed racist and anyone involved or backing/defending this moment is a racist. While i agree the Dutch actions in Indonesia aren't the best page in our history books, it's absurd to use this reasoning to brand the whole remembrance "racist". The action only got a few responses with people tweeting similar pics, there was mild outrage in the media and overall the issue was met with disdain from all sides of the political spectrum. All in all it was free speech and they where not bothering anyone.
Current day
So after this failed attempt at protests the group decided to up the ante this year and on the 24th of april a facebook event was started "come demonstrate against the racist 4th May remembrance" where this group was calling to hold a "noise demonstrations" at the national remembrance in Amsterdam. The direct impact was minimal as only 12 people clicked to attend and about 50 where interested. The secondary fallout was glorious:
The Major of Amsterdam responded in kind and was very clear:
"the right to demonstrate is holy. But this has nothing to do with demonstrating, this is just meant to disrupt our national 4th May moment. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech or demonstrating and hence is illegal and punishable by law. We will do everything in our extend to stop this from happening"
The demonstration was banned by the major and all Dutch political parties (there are about 2 dozen) have rejected the ideas about this protest. The organizing committee has already announced to not even enter into talks with this group as their ways are absurd and totally disrespectful. The committee is especially annoyed, since there are still living survivors attending. The overall consensus of the Dutch is that these are basic attention whores instead of proper interest group and that "Demonstrating is all fine and dandy, but not on the 4th of May" and certainly not with the intent to disrupt a remembrance.
So since the protest was banned the group has now filed a lawsuit at the municipal court to fight this ban. The court is due to give judgement on Thursday afternoon, the day before the National remembrance. I severely doubt they stand a chance to get this overturned especially since there has been a big public outrage which would qualify this as a risk scenario. There already was an incident with a deranged man Screaming and causing a panic in 2010 which caused a big scare and a small stampede. Even if they manage to "disrupt" the ceremony I reckon the police will not be the only ones sweeping these asshole off the square with a heavy hand.
Just to give an idea about this group: The girl in the picture of #geen4meivoormij was arrested earlier this year for calling on people to kill the actor playing Sinterklaas, and "splatter the children attending his arrival in blood and gore"..... Cause Sinterklaas (the figure Santa Claus is based on) is of course racist.........
some reference links in Dutch:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2228797-activisten-willen-lawaai-maken-tijdens-nationale-dodenherdenking.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_of_the_Dead
https://www.facebook.com/Geen4MeiVoorMij/
https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1954564/bizarre-oproep-maak-lawaai-tijdens-dodenherdenking
http://www.at5.nl/artikelen/181241/oproep-voor-lawaaidemonstratie-tijdens-dodenherdenking
https://www.hartvannederland.nl/nieuws/2018/gepland-lawaaiprotest-4-mei-roept-veel-boze-reacties-op/
gross