Netherlands 2008/9
One hundred and eight antisemitic incidents were
recorded in the Netherlands until the last days of December 2008, compared to 104 in 2007. During Israel’s operation in Gaza, the number of antisemitic incidents rose sharply,
reaching almost the total for the entire year − 98. Antisemitic slogans
previously restricted to the soccer stadium were heard in the streets during
this period.
The Jewish Community
An estimated 40,000 Jews live in the Netherlands out of a total population of 16.4 million. Dutch Jewry is
represented by three religious councils: the Nederlands Israelitisch
Kerkgenootschap (Orthodox), the Verbond van Liberaal Religieuze Joden (Reform)
and the Portugees Israelitisch Kerkgenootschap (Sephardi Orthodox). The vast
majority of the Jewish population, however, is unaffiliated to any religious
organization. CIDI (Israel Information and Documentation Center) monitors antisemitic manifestations in the country. The community
sustains a large variety of religious and educational institutions, as well as
a Jewish weekly, Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad.
Political Organizations and Racist Activity
Extreme Right
According to the AIVD (General
Intelligence and Security Service) report for 2008, right-wing
extremists remained divided and failed to gain representatives in Parliament
and local city councils. The neo-Nazi Dutch People’s Union (Nederlandse
Volks-Unie, NVU ), which has successfully used legal action to counter local
authority attempts to restrict its demonstrations, remained the largest group
organized along traditional party lines, but was increasingly forced to depend upon
the participation of other far right groups, such as National Socialist
Action/Autonomous National Socialists (NSA/ANS), and unorganized right-wing
youths who network on internet forums.
Traditional right-wing
extremists have resorted to mustering support on the internet and have adopted
tactics previously associated mainly with the far left. These include squatting
and pie throwing, as well as alliances with animal rights activists, directed mainly
against Islamic slaughter but also against shechita (ritual Jewish
slaughter). Right-wing extremists also formed alliances with extreme left-wing
activists protesting against alleged suppression of their freedom of speech by
the state and the police. Following a police raid on their homes and computers,
the operators of the website Holland-Hardcore.com, a more nationalist variant
of the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront, organized a demonstration calling for freedom
of expression, which attracted some 80-100 activists from a wide variety of
right-wing groups.
Ten NSA/ANS supporters held
a protest outside the Dutch Parliament in The Hague against the right-wing Party
for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders, whom they regard as too pro-Israel.
Wilders, who is outspoken on issues such as immigration, freedom of speech, Islam,
and the behavior of Moroccan youth in the cities, aroused international
controversy in 2008 with his film about Islam in the Netherlands, Fitna (see below).
Left-Wing Groups
Under the slogan “Keep the right off the
streets!” the Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) is one of the main militant left-wing
organizations. Among its activities, it organizes
counter-demonstrations, particularly
against the NVU, which on occasion turn violent. The confrontations, in fact, are normally
“delegated” to local anti-fascist youths or football hooligans. In a few cases,
actual or suspected supporters of the extreme right have been assaulted and
robbed. AFA cooperates with like-minded groups, particularly in Germany. In 2008 a Dutch court ruled for the first time that AFA had been the aggressor in
a left-right confrontation, at Uitgeest, in February 2007.
Left-wing groups related to
the more mainstream political left such as the Socialist Party, some left-wingers
in Dutch Labour, and leftist Christian organizations tend to support
anti-Israel demonstrations and boycotts (see also below).
Islamist Activity
The Muslim community in the Netherlands numbers about 850,000. According to the AIVD, members of mainstream Dutch
Muslim society, particularly the Turkish community, are increasingly distancing
themselves from radical Islamic movements, such as the declaredly non-violent but
socially polarizing Salafist centers. Disaffected Moroccan youth remain
susceptible to radicalization. They meet on the internet and at events such as
religious gatherings. Parts of the Moroccan community were active during the
conflict in Gaza, in late December 2008/January 2009, in demonstrations, petitions, fundraising and calls to boycott Israeli products.
The 2008 AIVD report notes
that small cells engaged in radical Islamist activity and jihadist terrorism
remain a threat to the Netherlands. A contributing factor in 2008 was the
critical domestic debate about Islam, which was fueled, among other factors, by
the release of Wilders film Fitna. The film, which features
excerpts from Suras of the Qur'an interspersed with media clips and newspaper
cuttings showing acts of violence and/or hatred by Muslims, seeks to demonstrate
that the Qur'an motivates followers to abhor all who violate Islamic
teachings, thus encouraging terrorism, antisemitism, violence against women and
homosexuals, and Islamic universalism.
The situation with regard to
Islamic websites in the Netherlands has changed little from 2007, according to
the AIVD. Many convey Salafist messages. However, the number of extremist
postings fell slightly, due partly to stricter moderation by some of the larger,
government-funded Moroccan web forums, but also seemingly because of less
interest among young Muslims in expressing extremist ideas online. The fact that
internet users are increasingly aware that such postings are monitored, and
that threats are in many cases reported to the police, may also have contributed
to their decline.
AntiSemitic Activity
CIDI registered 108 antisemitic incidents up until the
last days of December 2008, a slight rise from the 104 recorded in 2007, but a
clear decline from previous years. In the last week of December, when Operation
Cast Lead was launched in Gaza, the number of antisemitic incidents rose
sharply, reaching almost the total for the entire year − 98 − during
the period of warfare. It should be noted that statistics about antisemitic
incidents from other sources, which were included in the 2008 numbers, were
largely unavailable for the Gaza period. Both the sharp increase and an
analysis of antisemitic emails sent during this period indicate a clear
correlation between antisemitic expressions in the Netherlands and the rise in
tensions in the Middle East. It should be noted that in 2008 the number of hate
crimes registered by the police against Muslims, who number 20 times that of
the Jewish population, was 116, while the number of hate crimes registered against
Jews was 141. CIDI does not include statistics on antisemitism on the internet;
the national internet anti-discrimination watchdog also recorded more antisemitic
expressions than anti-Muslim ones.
The number of violent
incidents and threats of attacks against Jews also rose sharply during
Operation Cast Lead. In 2008 a total of 5 violent incidents were recorded
compared to 3 in 2007. However, during the period of Israel’s Gaza operation
alone, 9 such incidents were reported. These included a Molotov cocktail attack
on a synagogue, shots fired at a window of the Jewish center in the town of
Amstelveen and an assault on an identifiably Jewish 16 year-old girl who was
waiting for a tram, also in Amstelveen-Buittenveldert, by a gang of three youths. In The Hague, a group of youths smashed the window in the front door of a wheelchair-bound
man because they spotted an Israeli flag in his hallway. They then started a
fire in front of the door and shot firework rockets into the hall, “because we
are Palestinians.”
In the case of violent incidents or direct
confrontations on the streets such as insults directed at a visibly Jewish
person, the perpetrators were almost invariably identified as young men of
North African descent. It should be noted, however, perpetrators of other antisemitic
acts were native Dutch citizens.
This was especially the case
with antisemitic emails, at least half of which appeared to have been sent by native
Dutch persons. One of the differences between 2007 and 2008 was a sharp
increase in antisemitic emails (again excluding antisemitism on internet sites),
after the start of Operation Cast Lead. Thirty emails were received in 2008,
and 48 during Operation Cast Lead, many claiming that what Israel was doing in
Gaza was the same, or worse, than the what the Nazis did to the Jews in the
Holocaust. These comparisons were sometimes accompanied by images from Gaza alongside Holocaust-era photos. In extreme cases, the Holocaust was justified by
references to Israel’s actions in Gaza or senders of antisemitic emails
expressed the wish that “Hitler should have finished the job” because this
would have saved the suffering in Gaza. Trivialization of the Holocaust was never
as common in the Netherlands as it was during this period. (In this context, it
should also be noted that on
international Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, 2008, the slogan “Hooray,
hooray, long live Zyklon B” (Hoezee, hoezee, lang leve Zyclon B), used by the Dutch Nazi party during World War II, was shown on big video screens in a
Dutch football stadium during a soccer match between Vitesse and Ajax.) There
were also many antisemitic reactions on the internet in the form of talk-backs
to news reports during the Israeli operation.
Another difference was the
scale of the incidents, with large crowds chanting antisemitic expressions such
as “Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas” at anti-Israel demonstrations in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht during the period of Israel’s Gaza operation. They were organized by the left-wing anti-Israel lobby, together with Muslim
organizations and even the small dissident Another Jewish Voice (EAJG). Socialist
Party MP Harry van Bommel was filmed chanting “Intifada, intifada, Free Palestine”
at a demonstration in Amsterdam at which the above Hamas slogan was chanted.
Van Bommel claimed not to have heard it.
Responses to Antisemitism and Racism
Judicial Response
Many antisemitic incidents in the Netherlands are not reported at all. Some Jews feel there is no point in reporting them
because they don't want to cause trouble, can’t be bothered, or occasionally
because they don’t trust that the authorities will deal with the complaint seriously.
The Netherlands has a sound anti-discrimination policy, but sometimes individual
police officers display an unwillingness to record antisemitic incidents, or
fail to connect physical attacks on Jews to antisemitism − partly, in
some cases, due to ignorance. In one instance, a policeman called to investigate
a series of telephone threats and repeated instances of fireworks pushed
through the letterbox of an elderly widow at night, advised the victim to
remove the mezuzah from the door.
This impression is strengthened by the fact
that some Jews who file complaints are never informed of the outcome. Since few
antisemitic crimes have led to convictions and police investigations can continue
for protracted periods, society seems to send mixed signals about the
importance of counteracting antisemitism. For example, the police in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht failed to take any action against blatantly antisemitic
chants at the initial anti-Israel demonstrations. A bystander who complained
about them was told by a policeman that “they have the right to demonstrate.” It
was only after outraged media coverage, including open letters by CIDI to the
mayors of those cities (who are also heads of the police force), that they
condemned the actions, and during subsequent demonstrations arrests were made
and the perpetrators were sentenced to community service.
Attitudes and Education
Some politicians, police officials and the media condemned
the way rage among some segments of the Muslim immigrant population was
channeled against local Jews in the Netherlands during Operation Cast Lead, and
as noted, the mayors of Amsterdam,
Rotterdam and other cities eventually spoke out against antisemitic expressions
observed at anti-Israel demonstrations in their cities. There is a certain
level of awareness of the connection between expressions of Muslim antisemitism
and the situation in the Middle East. More worryingly, there appears to be a
widespread view that antisemitism was “a legitimate reaction to Israel’s actions,” as many put it and the part played by some native Dutch citizens was
ignored.
The CIDI project “Classroom of Difference,”
begun in 2005, engages the Muslim organizations ISBO (Board of Islamic Schools
Organisation, an umbrella organization of 42 Muslim schools in the Netherlands), and SPIOR (a platform for Islamic organizations in Rotterdam), among other bodies, in combating stereotyping in schools.
