Hatred of Jews is on the rise in the Netherlands. The board of the Central Jewish Consultation (CJO) has had enough. The organization demands concrete measures to protect the Jewish community.
“Anger dominates. We’ve been kept on a string. We speak to all kinds of people in boardrooms, they feel terribly sorry for us, the call from the House of Representatives was heart-warming, but we now hope for measures,” says vice-chairman Hans Weijel in Goedemorgen Nederland on NPO 1.
The CJO sounded the alarm this morning in De Telegraaf. “It just goes on and on,” says chairman Chanan Hertzberger in a full-page interview. “Since October 7, the number of anti-Semitic incidents has increased rapidly, with the disruption of Lenny Kuhr’s performance as the low point. This really has to stop now.”
He says his son was beaten up after playing football and Jewishhe young people are harassed when going out in Amsterdam. “Our youth are no longer safe at educational institutions: they are cancelled, attacked, intimidated. It is rife and we have had enough of it. We are normal Dutch people and want to be regarded and treated as such. Our civil liberties are at stake: more and more Jews feel threatened and intimidated and are hiding Jewishe symbols.”
‘Where is the NS?’
The chairman says that support is promised privately, but interlocutors rarely make themselves heard publicly. “Where are the Ministers of Education, Mariëlle Paul and Robbert Dijkgraaf? Where is Wouter Koolmees, the CEO of the NS? I was in contact with Koolmees about that sit-ins at the stations. He has good will, but he can’t do anything about it, he says. But surely he can at least openly say that he has major problems with those actions?”
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Weijel fears that if administrators do not speak out, things will go from bad to worse. “Failure to intervene can lead to the next step: physical violence against Jews.” Hertzberger: “Then we are very far from home. History has proven that things can go wrong quickly.”
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They advocate measures such as banning slogans calling for the genocide of Jews and criminalizing the glorification of terrorism. “There is a bill in the House that makes the glorification of terrorism a punishable offense. Enter that quickly. And: ban organizations that support Hamas,” says Hertzberger.
Students
Weijel adds in Good Morning Netherlands that Jewish students at universities are suffering from anti-Semitism. “People are bullied and harassed because they are Jewish. That’s not possible, that’s not allowed. They are Dutch. The government has to protect us,” he says.
The Vice-President criticizes the so-called teachings at universities. “The conflict in the Middle East is interpreted in an extremely one-sided way. Sometimes Jews are not even allowed. You are a Zionist, go away, they say.”
Also read:
House of Representatives stands up against hatred of Jews, DENK and FvD do not participate: ‘Disappointing’
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By: Michiel van Renselaar
Tags: Jewish community tired advancing hatred demands action government protect
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