'It would facilitate Gaza genocide': Protesters storm Microsoft planned site

Several hundred activists occupied the construction site of a planned Microsoft data centre in Amsterdam on Friday, protesting the technology giant's alleged role in facilitating Israel's genocide in Gaza, as well as the environmental impact of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The demonstration, organised by climate and justice collective Geef Tegengas and environmental group Fossielvrij, halted construction work for the day in the city's Sloterdijk district. The protesters argued that the facility could be used to support AI-powered warfare and Israel's military operations in Gaza. "It's so many things, so many struggles that come together in this data centre," Nathan Timmer, a spokesman for Geef Tegengas, told AFP. Timmer, 30, accused the project of helping to facilitate "AI warfare" and what he described as the "genocide" in Gaza. Dutch news agency ANP reported that police arrested between 150 and 200 protesters, while others left voluntarily. The protest was part of a wider two-day mobilisation across Europe called by the Stop Dirty Data Centers coalition, which is demanding a pause in the construction of new data centre facilities. Report by AFP Dutch police officers detain a demonstrator during a protest by the Geef Tegengas group against the construction of a Microsoft data centre in Sloterdijk, near Amsterdam on 6 November 2026. (AFP)