Dutch BDS activists to cease protests at Amsterdam WWII memorial
Move comes following uptick in anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands and after woman was filmed delivering anti-Semitic screed at site
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AMSTERDAM — Campaigners for boycotting Israel said they will stay away from the Dutch capital’s World War II monument, where their supporters have staged incidents of anti-Semitic hate speech and violence.
Gustav Draijer, a leader of Holland’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, announced Sunday that regular protests by BDS protesters at Dam Square were off, citing opponents’ “aggression, intimidation.”
The municipality in April vowed to limit the long-standing presence of anti-Israel protesters on the square, as well as to curtail to more recent counter-demonstrations. The mayor’s office sent a cease-and-desist letter in April to members of both parties, a spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
On June 16, a woman named Celine Sleiman was filmed delivering a tirade against Jews on Dam Square. “Killers, haters. Talmud calls you to f***k girls. Talmud tells you to plague humanity,” she was filmed telling Israeli tourists. The CIDI watchdog group against anti-Semitism filed a complaint against her for hate speech.
On Tuesday, hundreds of Jewish community leaders and dignitaries gathered at the Ridderzaal in the Hague, a 13th-century convention center located near the Dutch senate. In 1940, the Austrian Nazi governor of occupied Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, delivered his inaugural speech in that center.
“Fighting anti-Semitism is not the task of Jews, but of society,” Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs said at the event.
Separately, the two largest churches in the Netherlands, the Catholic and Protestant umbrella bodies RKK and PKN, last week published statements expressing “great concern” over the rise of anti-Semitism in the Netherlands.
Last month, the Dutch government announced that it had allocated $3.35 million toward fighting anti-Semitism — the first time Holland has placed the fight on its list of national priorities.
The funding, earmarked during budget talks among members of the ruling coalition, established the fight against anti-Semitism as a key point demanding government attention, alongside education, immigrant integration and five additional issues.
The move followed intensive coverage in the Dutch media of Jews’ fear of harassment and violence, mostly from immigrants from Arab or Muslim countries or their descendants. In 2018, CIDI reported that anti-Semitic vandalism had risen by 40 percent, to a 10-year high of 28 cases.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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