Updates To The Squatting Ban In The Netherlands

international | housing | news report Tuesday November 23, 2010 14:06 by kraker

A timeline of actions in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands during the squatting ban

October 1st
The first day of the squatting ban. Head of the police and a public prosecutor known for his hatred towards squatters are placed under 24-hour surveillance and protection after threatening texts (for example “an accident is just around the corner”) are supposedly painted outside their houses the previous night.

In Amsterdam 1000 people take part in a demonstration against the squatting ban. During the demonstration a house is squatted, and slightly later a riot breaks out when the cops charge the crowd. The police uses tear gas for the first time in years. 2 cops, 3 cop horses and several squatters are injured. One squatter is beaten severely and ends up in hospital with a fractured skull. 11 people get arrested.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AmpWee9jtA&feature=youtu.be
Photos: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/10/69874.shtml

October 2nd
Around 600 people demonstrate in Nijmegen against the squatting ban. Confrontations with the police. 13 people get arrested.

Photos: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/10/70033.shtml

October 4th
The house squatted on the 1st of October gets evicted. Massive amounts of riot police, vans and horses present but nobody was found inside the house.

October 5th
Squatters in Ede bring furniture and thus make a living room in the main entrance of a housing corporation in order to raise awareness of housing shortage in the area.

October 7th
A former hospital squatted two weeks earlier is evicted in Bloemendaal. The cops state they evict the building based on the new law making squatting illegal.

In Amsterdam a large office building inhabited only by a few anti-squatters is attacked. Windows of rooms where nobody lives in, and that have posters of the anti-squat agency on them, are thrown in.

October 13th
Five of the eleven people arrested during the riot on the 1st of October are trialled. Four of them get sentenced for public violence. The sentences range from 40 to 80 hours of community service.

October 14th
The inhabitants of two squats take the state to court, challenging evictions under the squatting ban. They argue that evicting under the new law is not in accordance with the European Treaty for Human Rights. The verdict is delivered a few days later; the squatters lose the case.

October 20th
A squat in Tilburg is evicted because the owner, the city of Tilburg, wants to place anti-squatters in the building. The occupants are given half an hour to remove their belongings from the house.

October 30th
A building is squatted in Zaandam.

October 31st
A huge office building is squatted in Utrecht.

November 1st
A small house is squatted in Amsterdam to celebrate the one month anniversary of the squatting ban.

The day-old squat in Utrecht gets evicted. 17 people are arrested in a brutal manner. Two of them refuse to tell the police their identities and will have to wait for their court case, which will take place in the end of November, in jail.

During the night the office of the housing corporation that owns the building gets paint bombed. Several windows are also smashed.

November 3rd
The city of Amsterdam announces the list of houses to be evicted in the first “eviction wave” since the new law. According to the calculations over 100 people would become homeless in one day. The city decides to evict even the houses that have a pending court case to challenge the eviction. The squatters start a fast court procedure.

November 4th
Police station in Amsterdam West gets attacked with molotov's. Unfortunately the station doesn't catch fire.

November 4th
A group of squatters in Utrecht disrupted the city council by reading a statement about the eviction on November 1st. They demanded freedom for their comrades and a clear eviction policy.

November 6th
A terrain is squatted in Den Haag. The terrain had been standing empty for seven years, ever since the demolition of a house that was squatted for 23 years. 12 buses of riot police show up and order the occupiers to leave, which they in the end do.

Photos: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/11/70990.shtml

November 7th
Approximately 300 people demonstrate in The Hague against the squatting ban and against housing shortage. The march is forced to start earlier than planned after city and the police announce that demonstrating is not allowed after five o'clock in the afternoon. One person gets arrested on suspicion of sedition, refuses to tell the police his identity and will have to wait in jail for his court case that takes place in mid-November.

November 8th
Verdict from a higher court in The Hague states that evicting houses solely under the new squatting ban is illegal. Most houses planned to be evicted the following day get off the eviction list.

700 people demonstrate in Amsterdam for cultural free spaces.

During the night the office of the political party PvdA, which the current mayor is a member of, gets attacked. Paint bombs are thrown, windows smashed and wooden pallets piled against the door are set on fire.

November 9th
Eviction wave in Amsterdam. Two big blocks of houses get evicted; both had lost a civil court case before the squatting ban. Five people are arrested.

Photos: http://indymedia.nl/nl/2010/11/71104.shtml

During the evictions a quick noise demo takes place inside the city hall. Squatters run around the building chanting slogans, throwing fireworks and making noise.

November 10th
During the night four anti-squat agencies get attacked. Windows are smashed and paint bombs thrown. A letter is left behind: “This is the first course. Are you ready for the whole menu? Do not put anti-squatters in evicted houses. Squatting goes on!”

Windows of Rabobank get smashed as a symbolic action against the evictions.

November 12th
A huge banner is hung on scaffolding in the center of Amsterdam to advertise a demonstration on the following day.

Photos: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/11/71263.shtml

November 13th
Demonstration with the slogan “space for everyone – against the deconstruction policy” gathers around 200 people: squatters, renters and neighbourhood activists.

In reaction to the verdict of the higher court on the 8th of November, the Het Openbaar Ministerie, The Public Prosecution Service, announces that it will try to patch up the holes in the hastily prepared squatting ban. Until there is a new policy for evictions, no squats will be evicted, they say.

November 14th
A house is squatted in Utrecht, from the same owner as the previously evicted house.

A former office of the city district of Amsterdam South, where an antisquatter now lives, gets paint bombed.

more information you can find mainly in dutch under: www.indymedia.nl
and soon in english under: http://kraakverbod.squat.net