Thousands demand Hague mayor's resignation

Thousands of residents in The Hague are demanding that their city's mayor Jozias van Aartsen be fired after his argued inaction over anti-Semitic comments outed at a demonstration. According to to the residents, at a demonstration last week Thursday in the Schilderswijk in The Hague, anti-Semitic slogans were shouted ('Death to the Jews'), but no effort was made to reprimand the culprits. The police made no arrests, and Mayor Van Aartsen said in a statement after the incident that "no lines were crossed." The group of residents are arguing that the very notion that no lines were crossed is evidence enough that lines were crossed. "The lines of the law were crossed with the calls to genocide. The last line", the group state on their petition. The petition was placed online by Michiel Mans, who is planning to send the petition to Parliament and the Municipality of The Hague A reporter from the NOS says that the demonstration was said to be about the Israeli offensive in the Gaza strip and that the pro-Palestina protesters were ISIS supporters. But the protest was actually a specifically anti-Jewish demonstration. Even the Hitler salute was used at the end of the demonstration by some participants, the NOS reports. A large group of Parliament members do believe that lines were crossed. The PVV, VVD, CDA and SGP have called for clarification from Minister Ivo Opstelten of Security and Justice, according to the Algemeen Dagblad. The Public Prosecution Authority (OM) will inspect camera footage of the demonstration to see whether criminal acts were performed. "If that is the case, we will not hesitate to act. It looks like we are hiding from this problem, but that is not the case", a spokesperson for the municipality says.

Zo heee is dit in #denhaag
Dat is schrikken. #gazademo #schilderswijk pic.twitter.com/LyDivpgMs2

— Haagsemat (@070ron) July 25, 2014