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.

On the eve of the Holocaust 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 Nederlands Israelitisch Kerkgenootschap, the Verbond van Liberaal Religieuze Joden and the Portugees-Israelitisch Kerkgenootschap. The community sustains a variety of religious and educational institutions, and publishes the newspaper Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad.

In summer 2000, Dutch banks and the Amsterdam stock exchange signed an agreement with the Jewish community and Dutch Jews in Israel for restitution of 314 million guilders (about $130 million) to Dutch survivors of the Holocaust or their heirs.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Notwithstanding their electoral failure in 1998 in the national as well as in the municipal elections, extreme right and xenophobic organizations continued their activities in 1999. The principal extreme right parties in the Netherlands are the Centrumdemocraten (CD), the Nieuwe Nationale Party (NNP) and the Nederlands Blok. The extreme right Centrum Party 86 (CP’86) was banned in November 1998.

In an attempt to win more votes, the CD, which is the largest of the parties, participated in the 1999 election to the European Parliament under a new name, CD/Conservative Party. The Conservative Party was formed by CD leader Hans Janmaat, and the new coalition was intended to convince potential voters that a new extreme right camp had been formed. Voters, however, were not deceived and the party lost its seats in the Euro-Parliament, obtaining only 0.5 percent of the poll. The CD is now in a state of disarray.

The NNP (formerly, Volksnationalisten Nederland) was established in the wake of the rift in CP’86 when the extreme right-wing movement was close to disintegration (see ASW 1996/7, 1997/8). Recently, the party has been trying to unite the extreme right under its leadership by moderating its slogans. Former CP’86 town councilors Marcel Hoogstra and Marc de Boer are leading members of the NNP.

The Nederlands Blok, led by Wim Vreeswijk, focuses mainly on the alleged relationship between crime and drugs, on the one hand, and refugees and immigrants, on the other. The Nederlands Blok receives support from the Flemish Vlaams Blok (VB) and its members attend VB meetings on a regular basis (see also Belgium).

Other extreme right organizations include Voorpost (Outpost), chaired by Marcel Rüter, and the student group Nederlandse Landelijke Studentenvereniging, which changed its name in October to Landelijke Actieplatform voor Nationalistische Studenten (Countrywide Action Platform for Nationalistic Students -- LANS).

When CP’86 was banned, Voorpost, which had been dormant for years, became a refuge for former members. Since the early 1990s Voorpost has been gradually taken over by the VB. Leading activists include the neo-Nazis Marcel Rüter, Tim Mudde, Marc de Boer and Marcel Hoogstra, all former CP’86 members.

There are three neo-Nazi groups: the Nederlandse Volksunie, the virulently racist and anti-Semitic Actiefront Nationale Socialisten (ANS) and the Fundamentalistische Arbeiderspartij (FAP). The ANS has been led since the late 1980s by Eite Homan, a member of the European Nazi movement and one of the leading figures in the NSDAP-AO. Its membership consists mainly of several dozen skinheads. The ANS, which uses the FAP, the JFN'94 and the Anti-zionistische Aktie, as front organizations, is mostly active in Belgium as the Odal Aktiekomitee.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES

There was a slight rise in anti-Semitic incidents in 1999 compared with 1998. Holocaust memorials in Groningen and Rotterdam and the Jewish cemetery in The Hague were daubed with Nazi and anti-Semitic slogans, such as “6,000,0000 too few” and “Juden Raus.” In Groningen the graffiti was signed by “Anti-Zionist Action.” Only the perpetrators who desecrated the Jewish cemetery in The Hague (November 1999) were caught and tried. They are also suspected of having smeared graffiti on the wall of the nearby Anglican church at the same time.

There was one violent incident in which a Jewish boy was beaten in a discotheque in Oude Wetering, while the perpetrators shouted “Jew, Jew.” Several cases were also reported of religious Jews, including children, being harassed and mocked.

Hate mail was sent to Jewish organizations and anti-Semitic and racist stickers appeared in public places as well as on private property. At the end of December, for example, NSDAP-AO stickers were put up in a neighborhood of Arnhem with the text: “Kauft nicht bei Juden” (Don’t buy from the Jews).

Anti-Semitic slurs have long become the norm at football matches in the Netherlands. Hissing, slogans and chants such as “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” are often heard during games. The spokesperson of CIV (Center for Information on Football Vandalism) warned that “in football arenas things are accepted which would not be tolerated elsewhere.” Even though the authorities, the judiciary and politicians agree that hissing and anti-Semitic chanting are unacceptable behavior, the law is not being enforced and games are not stopped. While it is difficult to prosecute people for hissing since it contains neither words nor text, there has been little police reaction to verbal offenses. There were only a few arrests under Articles 137c (the law pertaining to discrimination offenses) and 137F (participating in activities aimed at discrimination). According to the CIV spokesperson, arrests and official police reports were made only in rare cases where a complaint was lodged. In the 1998-99 season, for example, of 1,546 supporters arrested, more than 50 percent were charged with violent behavior. The phenomenon of anti-Semitism in football stadiums was widely discussed in the wake of offensive remarks by Feyenoord team member Ulrich van Gobbel. Racism and anti-Semitism in football stadiums is also connected with the fact that the AJAX football club is regarded as Jewish. Jewish organizations believe that AJAX supporters should stop wearing Jewish emblems.

The Israeli airline El Al claimed that it had received anti-Semitic letters from Dutch citizens following the crash of an El Al cargo plane over the Bijlmer suburb of Amsterdam in October 1992. While the findings of a Dutch parliamentary inquiry, released in April 1999, censured both the Dutch authorities and El Al for their handling of the affair, the latter was cleared of a cover-up. El Al reported that the anti-Semitic letters had ceased after the findings had been published. Many letters critical of El Al and Israel had also been sent to the Dutch press and to Jewish organizations; however, according to CIDI (Israel Information and Documentation Center), almost none were anti-Semitic.

The Internet has become the main vehicle for anti-Semitic propaganda in the Netherlands. In 1999 the number of anti-Semitic texts increased considerably. Most complaints are sent to the Meldpunt Discriminatie Internet (Complaints Bureau for Discrimination on the Internet -- MDI) which, in its annual survey for 1999, reported 360 occurrences, 91 of which were judged to be anti-Semitic: for example, “Holland, (like Belgium) is gradually becoming a Jewish colonial province.” In addition, there were 21 remarks denying the Holocaust. For the first time, in June 1999, police began investigating a resident of Amsterdam suspected of placing discriminatory material on the Internet. Moreover, on 13 July, W. Beauxand Marc de Boer of the dissolved Volksnationalisten Nederland appeared before a magistrate in The Hague to answer a charge of inciting to hatred, discrimination and violence on the Internet.

In some cases anti-Semitic and racist slogans were removed and sites closed down because of public pressure. The site of the well known TV program “Brutale Meiden” (Saucy Girls) terminated an anti-Semitic discussion group following a complaint by CIDI and the MDI. Another example was the decision of a provider to remove an Internet advertisement for the book In Search of My Wedding Ring, by the widow of the leader of the collaborationist Nationaal Socialistische Beweging (NSB), Rost van Tonningen, who was sentenced to death after WWII. In 1992 the widow was fined 50,000 guilders because the book contained passages offensive to Jews.

Bazaars selling military items, especially Nazi paraphernalia (including anti-Semitic postcards), are popular throughout the Netherlands, despite the article in the Dutch Penal Code forbidding the sale of objects inciting to hatred. There are also frequent reports of sales of Mein Kampf. A seller who offered a 1938 and a 1940 version of the book at the Dordrecht book fair in July 1999 was acquitted in a local court. It should be noted that as in the case of anti-Semitic insults at football matches, the law is not always enforced in this area, too.

RESPONSES TO ANTI-SEMITISM AND RACISM

Organizations fighting anti-Semitism in the Netherlands include Anne Frank House, CIDI, MDI, the Dutch Auschwitz Committee, the National Bureau for the Fight Against Racism and the 4th and 5th May Committee, as well as several local bodies. These groups sponsor public and educational programs against racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance. In February 1999, for example, the Vreewijk (a suburb of Rotterdam) Committee for Tolerance, which is financed by the Rotterdam municipality, initiated the distribution of stickers bearing the words of Article 1 of the constitution, among pupils of all elementary schools in Rotterdam.

Several leading ultra-right-wing figures were given prison sentences. Joop Glimmerveen, leader of the Nederlandse Volksunie, was found guilty for the fifth time, in May 1999, of inciting to hatred and discrimination against minorities. He was sentenced to five months imprisonment. After the verdict, which he said he would appeal, he declared: “Hitler said he wanted to gas the Jews. I only believe they should leave the country.” Three other right-wing extremists were also convicted, including Stewart Mordaunt, who was given a six-week sentence, and Constant Kusters, who received a conditional prison sentence for carrying a banner with a swastika during an illegal meeting. Further, the Supreme Court ruled that CD leader Janmaat will go to jail if he continues to make racist or insulting references.

On 4 January 2000, an Amsterdam Court exonerated the author of the book Dancing Lessons, which refers to one of the characters, the mayor of Zandvoort, as “a Jew boy.” The court found that the passage in question was offensive, but ruled that the words were spoken by a person who clearly did not reflect the author’s views.

On 25 April 2000, B’nai B’rith lost the appeal in its case against Peter Edel. On 18 November 1998, an Amsterdam court had acquitted 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 linked B'nai B'rith with 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.