THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

An estimated 30,000 Jews live in the Netherlands today out of some 16 million inhabitants. The majority live in Amsterdam. Dutch Jewry is represented by three councils, based on affiliation: the Nederlands Israelitisch Kerk-genootschap, the Verbond van Liberaal Religieuze Joden and the Portugees Israelitisch Kerkgenootschap. The community, which sustains a variety of religious and educational institutions, publishes the newspaper Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad.

In spring 2000, the Dutch government awarded the Jewish community 400 million guilders (US$160 million), of which 50 million is earmarked for Jewish causes throughout the world “as a way of finally acknowledging the criticisms” leveled at the treatment of victims during the restitution process. Moreover, in July 2000 Dutch banks and the Amsterdam stock exchange (bourse) signed an agreement with representatives of the Jewish communities in the Netherlands according to which they will pay Dutch survivors and their heirs 314 million guilders (US$130 million). The banks and the bourse also agreed to publish announcements in leading newspapers condemning their own activities during the war and apologizing to Dutch Jewry; to publish a book about the activities of the bourse during the war and to install a memorial tablet to commemorate the plunder of assets of Dutch Jewry.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

The structure of the extreme right wing in the Netherlands has changed little with respect to 1999. The main parties are the Centrumdemocraten (CD), the Nieuwe Nationale Partij (NNP) and the Nederlands Blok. The NNP, which is the most active, recruits support through moderate slogans. It was formed when a rift within the CP’86 (see ASW 1997/8, 1998/9) almost wiped out the extreme right. The CD is the only extreme right party to have sat in the Dutch parliament – from 1989 to 1998. They had three seats in 1994, which they lost in 1998. Locally, the CD is represented only on the Schiedam town council. In Utrecht, where elections took place in 2000 following a municipal redistribution, the Nederlands Blok lost its only seat.

The main groups of the extreme right are Voorpost and the nationalist student platform Landelijk Actieplatform voor Nationalistische Studenten (LANS). The leaders of Voorpost are former members of CP’86, such as Marcel Ruter, Tim Mudde, Marc de Boer and Marc Hoogstra. CP’86 was banned in 1998.

Neo-Nazi groups include the virulently racist and antisemitic Actiefront Nationale Socialisten (ANS), the Fundamentalistische Arbeiderspartij (FAP), the Nederlandse Volksunie (NVU), the Nationaal Offensief and Stormfront.

Several meetings of European extreme right activists took place in the Netherlands in 2000. On 13 February, for example, the Nederlandse Volks Unie met to commemorate Hitler’s seizure of power on 30 January 1933. About 100 people participated from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. On 26 August, the NVU organized a memorial service for Rudolf Hess in Echt, attended by fifty activists from the Netherlands and Germany. They waved flags bearing runic symbols which resembled swastikas. The police arrested ANS leader Eite Homan but released him following pressure from the demonstrators. The demonstrators marched through Echt waving banners reading “Rudolf Hess, martyr for peace.” In 2001 Eite Homan and the neo-Nazi activist Constant Kusters were to stand trial for this demonstration. On 12 November in Mook, the NVU commemorated Hitler’s abortive coup attempt in 1923. About 100 participants attended from the Netherlands and Germany, without police intervention.

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

An increase in the number and severity of antisemitic incidents was recorded in 2000 compared with the previous year, continuing the trend which began in 1997. While in 1999 only one violent incident was registered, in 2000 there were six incidents involving physical violence or threat of violence. In Oss, for example, on the Day of Atonement in October, the windows of a synagogue were smashed and a service disrupted with chants such as “Heil Hitler.” Similarly, acts of vandalism of Jewish sites rose from two in 1999 to eight in 2000. Moreover, the number of cases of verbal defamation rose from 17 in 1999 to 32 in 2000.

Antisemitic letters, graffiti and slogans indicated that anti-Jewish manifestations in the Netherlands in 2000 were triggered mainly by the question of restitution of Jewish property and by the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada. Many slogans smeared on Jewish sites, as well as pamphlets and letters sent to individuals and Jewish institutions, contained implied threats referring to the Holocaust, such as: “They forgot to gas you”; “Adolf forgot you, but you’ll get your turn soon – you get a train ride to Poland”; or “6,000,000 Jews were not enough.”

There was an increase in the number of extreme right sites on the Internet in 2000, and the number of complaints of racism on the Internet tripled. Out of 550 complaints of racism to Meldpunt Discriminatie Internet, 203 were allegedly antisemitic. Two new phenomena in this regard were racist/ antisemitic messages sent via SMS message boards and the sale of extreme right-wing music to customers in the Netherlands through the international music provider Napster.

RESPONSES TO ANTISEMITISM AND RACISM

There is a Dutch anti-racist network involving tens of organizations (see ASW 1999/2000). They exchange information and organize joint demonstrations, as well as annual activities around the national anti-racism day (21 March). Some Dutch anti-racist organizations are part of ENAR – European Network against Racism. Local events take place regularly, such as the publicity campaign Amsterdam leeft samen (Coexistence in Amsterdam) and the ADB Noord-Holland’s poster campaign Als discriminatie verliest, wint de sport (A loss for discrimination is a victory for sport).

Two successful educational programs were carried out in Dutch schools in 2000: “School without racism” and “A world of difference” (initiated by the ADL).

Several court cases involving antisemitic utterances and the distribution of antisemitic, Holocaust denial and neo-Nazi material in the Netherlands were adjudicated in 2000. The Belgium Holocaust denier Siegfried Verbeke lost his appeal in April against the Anne Frank Organization and the Anne Frank Foundation. The case concerned a pamphlet in the revisionist series Anne Frank Een kritische benadering, in which Verbeke questioned the autheof TDiary of Anne Frank. The case had been pending since 1991. While admitting the right of freedom of expression, the court stated that this freedom was limited by law, which took into consideration the rights and freedoms of other people. The court forbade Verbeke from distributing the brochure in Holland.

Three right-wing extremists were convicted in November of desecrating the Portuguese-Jewish cemetery and Holocaust memorials in the Hague with swastikas and antisemitic slogans. They were sentenced to short jail sentences of less than a month each. Present in the court was Joop Glimmerveen, leader of Nederlandse Volksunie, together with several supporters wearing brown shirts, and black pants and jackets.

The Public Prosecutor in Utrecht ordered that the four perpetrators who beat up a Jewish youth in Woudenberg perform one hundred hours of community service “for public violence motivated by racism,” and pay 1,900 guilders in damages to the victim. One of the four had a previous conviction for discrimination.

An Arnhem sub-district court fined, in absentia, an Internet user 1,500 guilders and put him on two years probation for disseminating virulently antisemitic and racist texts on the Internet. This was the first conviction of a user for discrimination on the Internet.

It should be noted that despite the prosecution of racist activists and antisemites in 2000 and the complaints of anti-discrimination organizations, the police often prefer not to bring charges against football fans who use racist symbols and slogans.