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A decline was reported in the influence of extreme rightist organizations in
the Netherlands in 1998, which was reflected in their losses in the March
municipal elections and the May parliamentary elections. There was no
increase in anti-Semitic incidents in 1998 compared with 1997, but the
numbers reported both in 1997 and 1998 were much higher than in 1996.
Several racists and anti-Semites were convicted in 1998, including the neo-Nazis
Constant Kusters and Joop Glimmerveen.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
An estimated 30,000 Jews live in the Netherlands today out of some 15.5
million inhabitants. The majority live in the Amsterdam area and there are
also sizable communities in the Hague and in Rotterdam.
Both Sephardim and Ashkenazim found sanctuary in the Netherlands in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and established distinct communi-ties.
On the eve of the Shoah there were 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands --
including some 30,000 who had fled from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Of that number 100,000 perished.
Dutch Jewry is represented by three councils, based on affiliation: the
Netherlands Israelitish Kergenootcha, the Verbond van Liberal Religieuze
Joden and the Portugees-Israelitisch Kergenootschap. The community
sustains a variety of religious and educational institutions, and publishes the
newspaper Nieuw Israelitisch Weeklblad.
POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS
The Bureau for Internal Security (BVD), in July 1998, reported a decline in
the influence of extreme rightist organizations, which was reflected in their
losses in the municipal elections in March and the parliamentary elections in
May. There are no more than fifty organized neo-Nazis in the Netherlands
now, down from more than one hundred in the recent past.
Political Parties
In the municipal elections in March 1998, the three extreme right-wing
political parties lost nearly all their seats. In Rotterdam-Schiedam the leading
rightist party, the Centrum Democrats (CD), retained one seat, and in
Utrecht the Nederlands Blok (NB) got one seat. Formerly, the extreme right
held 88 seats, 78 by the CD, 9 by the Centrum Party (CP'86) and one by
the NB. In the parliamentary elections of May 1998, the CD lost their 3 seats.
J. van Donselaar, researcher of extreme rightist parties at the University
of Leiden, attributed the losses of the right to changes in the law on voting.
Now a party must have 570 signatures in order to participate in all voting
districts whereas previously 190 signatures had been sufficient.
The NVP/ CP'86 (NVP = Nationalen Volkspartij), founded in 1996/97 by
some of the most extreme right radicals who were expelled from CP'86 in
1996 (see ASW 1996/ 7), was declared illegal and disbanded by an Amsterdam
court in November 1998. This judgment was based on a series of penal
provisions as well as on a number of sentences handed down by the courts
to both individual members of the party and to the party itself (see previous
reports). This verdict means that members of the party leadership Jan Teijn,
Stewart Mordaunt and Martijn Freling are now forbidden to be members of
the same party.
The electoral failure of the extreme right-wing political parties compelled
them to regroup: the Volksnationalisten Nederland (VNN) was incorporated
into the Nieuwe Nationale Partij (New National Party) and, in July,
the Nationale Partij Nederland (Netherlands National Party -- NPN) was
founded. This party attempts to unite the extreme right within its ranks.
Furthermore, the action group Voorpost (Outpost) was revived and, in an
effort to recruit among students a sub-group, Nederlandse Studenten
Vereniging (NLSV), was established.
Neo-Nazi Meetings
On 6 June scores of neo-Nazis from Holland, Belgium and Germany
assembled in Valburg (Gelderland) at a meeting organized by Joop Glimmerveen
of the Nederlandse Volks Unie (Dutch Peoples Union). Glimmerveen
and Constant Kusters are the main neo-Nazi activists today (see
previous reports). Some at the meeting wore swastikas and SS insignia and
gave the Hitler salute. Gimmerveen said that his party aspired to the
realization of Hitler's ideas. "And when we attain power, the multi-racial
society will belong to the past," he declared. Constant Kusters spoke on
asylum seekers and foreigners (see below).
Several other neo-Nazi meetings were held in 1998 in various places,
including one on the day of Kristallnacht. There was no police interference.
Kusters and neo-Nazi activist Eike Homan were among Dutch extremists
who tried to participate in a march in memory of Rudolph Hess in Denmark
on 14 August, but were stopped at the border by the Danish police.
Extreme Turkish Islamists and Nationalists.
Milli Gorus (National Vision), is an organization of Turkish immigrants in
Europe, composed of members of the former Turkish Welfare Party (see
Turkey) and the fascist Gray Wolves. Their aim, to shield Turkish immigrants
from Westerm cultural and political influences, is expressed in their
newspaper Milli Gazette, thus: "Milli Gorus is a shield protecting our fellow
citizens from assimilation into barbaric Europe." The secretary of the Dutch
department of Milli Gorus, Ali Yoksel, said in Brussels: "Democracy is a
Western error." A Hamburg court called Milli Gorus "a danger to the free
democratic state of law." In its latest report the BVD also warned of the
growing influence of this fundamentalist organization. Spokesmen for Milli
Gorus have repeatedly expressed anti-Semitic opinions. In 1996 Jews were
labeled "blood-sucking vampires" in the Milli Gazette, which also called
Western countries "instruments of the secret Jewish worldwide conspiracy."
Milli Gorus members and supporters met on 20 June 1998 in the Amsterdam
stadium. No anti-Semitic incidents occurred; however the CIDI (Center for
Information and Documentation on Israel) criticized the stadium authorities
for allowing the demonstration on the grounds that a mass meeting of 40,000
strengthened the infra-structure of this fanatical alignment.
ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
While in 1998 there was no increase in anti-Semitic incidents compared with
1997, the numbers reported both in 1997 and 1998 were much higher than
in 1996. The incidents included acts of vandalism, desecration of Jewish
cemeteries and memorial sites, insults and threats. It should be emphasized
that in several cases individuals and communities refrained from submitting
an official complaint to the police.
In May, for example, the home of a Jewish mayor of a town in the
province of North Holland was daubed with swastikas. On 12 September a
synagogue in the province of Gelderland was defaced with swastikas and the
words "Forbidden to Jews" and "Juden raus."
On 24 November swastikas were painted on the monument in Meppel
erected in memory of local Jews murdered in the Holocaust. This was the
second time within a few weeks that the monument was defaced.
Anti-Semitic slogans have characterized the behavior of soccer fans in the
Netherlands in the past, and again in 1998 the Center for Information on
Football Vandalism reported that at matches involving Ajax and other teams
cries of "Jews to the gas" and other anti-Semitic slogans were shouted. After
the defeat of the amateur football team Tonegido by AFC, on 15 March, the
goalkeeper of Tonegido shouted: "They forgot to gas all of you Jews in the
Second World War." The goalie was suspended. As part of the campaign
against violence at sports events, no Ajax supporters were admitted to the
Feyenoord-Ajax match on 5 April. Nevertheless, the stadium seethed with
hatred. The Ajax team were taunted by anti-Semitic chanting and objects
were thrown at them. The police arrested 13 people for shouting racist
slogans.
Internet. There has been an attempt to counter anti-Semitic propaganda on
Internet sites by Meldpunt Discriminatie Internet (MDI), founded in 1997. By
issuing a warning, requesting the removal of text or lodging a complaint,
MDI tries to decrease the number of discriminatory or racist utterances on
Dutch sites. Between 22 March 1998 and 21 March 1999, MDI registered 121
reports, 31 of which were anti-Semitic. This was nearly double the number
of reports from the same period in 1997-98.
In addition on 12 June, the Office against Discrimination in Amsterdam
was informed of an anti-Semitic e-mail message received by a resident of
Amsterdam. The authorities are investigating his complaint.
RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Public Activities
Several organizations continued their struggle against extreme right, racist
and anti-Semitic groups and individuals. For example, in January, the Joint
Resistance Foundation, which represented all the movements that opposed
the German occupation during World War II and which, since 1945, has been
working for a tolerant society, requested that Dutch Internet providers
(about 80) not allow fascist or neo-Nazi websites to operate. About twelve
providers promised support. In February 1999, the new trade union FNV
Bondgenoten expelled members who declared that they had been candi-dates
of extreme right-wing parties in the municipal elections. Also in
February, the Pop Against Racism foundation marked its fifth anniversary by
bringing out the song "One Voice" as a single. The proceeds of the single
and of the concert given by the artists who made the single went to the Pop
Against Racism foundation. In March, the Holland Shows Its Color committee
organized its seventh anti-racist demonstration.
An important step was taken when the post office bank was given
permission to deny CP'86 the right to keep an account. A complaint lodged
by CP'86 with the Commission on Equal Treatment was rejected. As a matter
of principle, the post office bank does not serve persons or institutions
whose activities are socially unacceptable. On the basis of this judgment, the
CP'86 may now expect other banks to follow suit and deny them the right
to hold an account.
In November 1998 the National Bureau for the Fight against Racism
brought out its first report for 1997, based on a project which aims to arrive
at a system of registration that allows it to compare complaints of discrimination
in a centralized, uniform, reliable and objective manner. In 1997, 24 of
the more than 40 bureaus against discrimination in Holland cooperated in
this project.
Constant Kusters was interviewed on 23 June for an official report of the
Housing, Overall Planning and Environment Ministry (VROM). The report,
"Noteworthy Sounds from the Undercurrents: Interviews with Spokesmen
Representing Non-institutionalized Voices," was issued within the framework
of the ministry's Project Holland 2030. The official who interviewed Kusters
said she had wanted to bring to public notice new voices that had not
reached the mainstream. In the interview Kusters asserted that he was a convinced
National Socialist. Questions were raised in parliament and CIDI
demanded that the minister of VROM withdraw the entire report officially
and reprimand the interviewer. The minister replied that she was "shocked"
at the whole matter and had taken note of it "with anger and indignation."
Though she confirmed that the report would be destroyed, she did not
accede to the request to withdraw it officially and reprimand the interviewer.
The Historical Journal published the results of a poll of 200 people about
their knowledge of World War II. They had been sub-divided into the age
groups 20- 40, 40-60 and 60 plus. They seemed to know little: 80 percent did
not know when the Germans invaded Holland; 90 percent thought that
World War II should be commemorated, the young because of the need to
be alert against racism, the old because they feared totalitarianism and mass
hysteria.
Lawsuits
Several racists and anti-Semites were prosecuted during 1998. In March a
Rotterdam judge sentenced the neo-Nazi Constant Kusters to 60 hours of
public service for carrying a banner with a swastika and an eagle during a
demonstration in Rotterdam on 3 February 1996. The anti-fascist organization
AFA asked the minister for an explanation and noted that alternative
sentences, such as public service, are not meant for people who repeatedly
infringe the law. In April Joop Glimmerveen was sentenced to four months
imprisonment. The court accepted the evidence that he had incited to hatred
and discrimination against foreigners "using racist and inflammatory
language."
In the Hague, on 28 July, the public prosecutor dismissed the case against
T. Mudde, a leader of Voorpost. In 1995 Mudde allegedly incited to hatred
of foreigners and to discrimination in three articles which appeared in the
CP'86 newspaper The Revolutionary Nationalist. At the time Mudde was a
member of the board of CP'86. The prosecutor found that Mudde's ideas
were not expressed in a public venue.
On 18 November, an Amsterdam court acquitted Peter Edel, author of the
article "Marginal Remarks at the Commemoration," which appeared in the
leftist political journal Ravage in May 1996. In the article Edel had made a
connection between B'nai B'rith and the Ku Klux Klan, accusing B'nai B'rith
of having had an influence on the Nazi way of thinking. B'nai B'rith had
brought charges against Edel and the editor of the article, who was also
acquitted. The prosecutor has lodged an appeal.
On 18 November an Amsterdam court found a bookseller guilty of selling
Mein Kampf, part 1, but did not hand down a sentence. The prosecutor
considered it an offense that the merchant had "kept the book in stock for
distribution but not for factual information." The bookseller argued that
libraries were allowed to lend out the book and that it was easy to access
on the Internet. The court agreed and replied that this was the reason the
verdict carried no sentence.
Reacting to written questions in parliament, at the end of 1997, the
ministers of justice and education prescribed guidelines for the sale of Mein
Kampf. They considered the book forbidden for sale according to the
provisions of the criminal law. However, a scientific, responsible re-edition,
in which the editor distanced himself from the contents in a preface and
elucidated his motives for the re-edition might be allowed.
A court in Amsterdam in December prohibited distribution of the booklet
Anne Frank: A Critical Approach, by Holocaust deniers Robert Faurisson and
Siegfried Verbeke, in which they called the diary a fraud. Faurisson and
Verbeke are not allowed to distribute this booklet or any other material with
similar content in Holland on penalty of being fined fl 25,000 for each
infringement. The verdict had been long in coming because the authors had
French and Belgium nationality, respectively. In 1992 Anne Frank House had
already brought suit against the authors, against the association Vrij
Historisch Onderzoek (see Belgium), to which the authors belonged, and
against the publisher, L. Van den Bossche. In a suit brought by CIDI and
Anne Frank House, Verbeke was found guilty of distributing pamphlets
denying the Holocaust (see ASW 1996/97).
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