The Hague council member on trial for anti-Semitic tweets

Faction leader of the Party of Unity in The Hague, Arnoud van Doorn, will appear in court on Tuesday, due to anti-Semitic tweets the council member posted a few years ago. The lawyer of the 55-year-old, Anis Boumanjal, said he is surprised at the prosecution of his client and pointed to the right to freedom of expression.

The indictment of Van Doorn involved three tweets which the Public Prosecution Services (OM) said were a call for violence.

“Today in Palestine, dozens of young people were murdered by bullets from the occupying, Zionist forces. Paradise is getting crowded. May Allah destroy the Zionists”, Van Doorn tweeted in May 2018 adding a fist and a fire emoji.

Two further posts, one in May 2018 and one in January 2019, also entailed the destruction of Zionists and “enemies of Islam”.

Boumanjal said the classification of his client’s tweets as a call for violence goes too far. “I see it as an exaggerated response from the OM. The final word is with the judge and he will have to make a decision about it,” the lawyer said.

Van Doorn converted to Islam in 2013 and then, became a member of the Party of Unity. Until the end of 2011, he had been a part of the PVV faction.

The 55-year-old was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and a three-month suspended prison sentence in 2015 for, among other offences, leaking classified documents, selling hemp to minors and possession of an alarm pistol in his house.