People who commit anti-Semitic offenses should also be given a mandatory educational punishment, such as a visit to the National Holocaust Museum or a World War II camp. That is a plan of VVD and D66 in the debate on anti-Semitism.
Imposing such a punishment is already possible, but little is done. The minister must now investigate what the obstacles are to imposing such a punishment.
More reports of anti-Semitism
Since the war in Gaza, the number of reports of anti-Semitism has increased, new figures showed this week. Last year there were 880 reports, more than 300 more than the year before.
“It is terrible that a Jewish child walks down the street and is then told that all Jews have to use the gas,” says D66 MP Mpanzu Bamega. “But it is an example of what is happening in the Netherlands, and it must be punished.”
‘Holocaust Museum or Camp Westerbork’
“Then you will receive community service. But what we want is that an educational measure is also added as a special condition. For example, to visit the National Holocaust Museum or go to Camp Westerbork,” says VVD MP Ulysse Ellian.
“You hope that it will affect people when they go to visit it. And that they really understand the actual consequences of their actions,” Bamenga adds.
Support expected in Parliament
VVD and D66 therefore want the minister to enter into discussions with Jewish organizations, the Public Prosecution Service and the judiciary to see what the obstacles are to imposing such a punishment. Bamenga: “Maybe it is because the judge is hardly aware of the option. There may be practical obstacles and we would like an answer to that.”
The plan will most likely receive support from a majority of the House of Representatives. “It is important that people realize what it means when you say terrible things about Jews, also in the context of history,” Ellian said.
What does the law say?
Such an educational measure may simply be imposed according to the criminal code, Henny Sackers, the Nijmegen professor of criminal law and criminology at Radboud University, previously told RTL News. “The law says that the judge may always impose a special condition on someone with a suspended sentence. It is therefore not an ‘educational punishment’ in this case, but a condition for not receiving community service. The convicted person can therefore choose whether he goes to a museum, monument or concentration camp or not.”
Sackers previously called it a ‘fairly unique verdict’ that you rarely encounter. “Something like this is probably not often imposed, because it is quite difficult to implement. It takes a lot of capacity to check whether the convicts meet the conditions.”
Tags: Plan perpetrators antiSemitism forced museum camp RTL News
