netherlands 2009

 

 

An estimated 40,000 Jews live in the Netherlands out of a total population of 16.4 million. Just over half live in “Greater Amsterdam.”

A total of 167 antisemitic incidents were recorded by CIDI (Israel Information and Documentation Center) in 2009, an increase of 55 percent over the previous year (108). Out of these, 35 were serious incidents, involving violent attacks or threats of violence, vandalism of synagogues and monuments and antisemitic graffiti on Jewish-owned buildings.

There were four violent attacks (2008: 2), six threats (2008: 3) and six desecrations of Jewish cemeteries and memorials (2008: 0). The actual number of incidents was probably much higher, however, since many Dutch Jews have stopped reporting them, believing that nothing will change if they complain, or they fear reprisal (see also below). (The number for 2010 may be almost as high; in the first six months of 2010, CIDI recorded 70 incidents and the matter was under discussion in the Dutch parliament.)

It should be noted that the figures for 2009 do not include antisemitic incidents reported to the police, which are included in the numbers for 2008. Antisemitic incidents documented by the police in 2009 numbered 209 (compared to 141 in 2008), accounting for 9.4 percent of the total (Jews represent only 0.3 percent of the population of the Netherlands). Since the police did not make a description of incidents available, there may be overlaps with the CIDI numbers.

The number of violent incidents and threats of attacks against Jews recorded by CIDI rose sharply during Operation Cast Lead. In 2008 a total of 5 violent incidents were recorded and 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 in Amsterdam Buitenveldert, 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. One of the victims, a visibly Jewish man, testified that “when an Israeli military operation dominates the headline, I am the first to notice it on the streets… The verbal abuse hurled at me… is becoming more severe and more regular.” “Their reasoning goes something like this: Israelis are Jews,” explained Menno ten Brink, a rabbi for the liberal Jewish community in Amsterdam: “Palestinians are Arabs, so we Moroccan ‘Arabs’ in the Netherlands are going to take on Dutch Jews.”

A visibly Jewish young man in Rotterdam recorded a series of antisemitic taunting and abuse (such as “F**ing Jews”), some of it in Arabic, over ten days in April (registered as one incident), mostly by groups of youths of North African origin.

It should be noted, however, that 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 citizens. One of the differences between 2009 and 2008 was a sharp increase in such communications after the start of Operation Cast Lead. While 30 emails were received in 2008, 48 were received during Operation Cast Lead alone, 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.

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.

There were also many antisemitic reactions on the internet in the form of talkbacks to news reports during the Israeli operation. In 2009 the MDI (Meldpunt Discriminatie Internet) received 399 complaints of antisemitism on the internet, 258 of which it considered punishable by law. MDI register complaints only about Dutch sites and sites hosted abroad aimed at the Netherlands. Statistics from MDI from 2005 to 2010 indicate that while the incidence of anti-Semitism on the internet is high relative to overall reports of discrimination against other minority groups in the Netherlands, the number has remained stable.

In September, the Riz Khan TV show on Al Jazeera addressed a controversy surrounding the publication of antisemitic cartoons by the Dutch Arab European League (AEL). The cartoon, posted on the AEL website, inferred that the Holocaust was a Jewish invention. Following a complaint by CIDI, the Dutch public prosecution announced that it would bring the organization to court for incitement. The case was heard in 2010. AEL chairman Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda defended the cartoon, stating that it was meant as a provocation unveiling the double standards of western societies concerning freedom of speech.

A proposal in May to decriminalize Holocaust denial in the Netherlands made by Mark Rutte, head of the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD; fourth largest party), touched off intra-party controversy and drew criticism from prominent Jewish figures and the political establishment. Rutte said Dutch law should prosecute those only inciting to violence. "Claiming that the Holocaust did not occur should be possible," Rutte said. Currently, Dutch law prohibits Holocaust denial when it is purposefully used for discriminatory ends or is meant to offend.

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 during Operation Cast Lead. 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. Some politicians, police officials and media outlets also criticized the way rage among some segments of the Muslim immigrant population was channeled against local Jews in the Netherlands.

There is a certain level of awareness of the connection between expressions of Muslim antisemitism and the situation in the Middle East. However, 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 Muslim organizations such as ISBO (Board of Islamic Schools Organization, an umbrella organization of 42 Muslim schools in the Netherlands) and SPIOR (a platform for Islamic organizations in Rotterdam), in combating stereotyping in schools.