Amsterdam court rules cockroach on Israel flag counts as hate speech against Jews

It is hate speech against Jews if someone carries a flag of Israel on which the blue Star of David has been replaced by a blue cockroach. This action does not fall under freedom of expression, the court in Amsterdam ruled on Friday. A 66-year-old man who displayed the flag will therefore receive a conditional fine of 350 euros.

The man took part in a demonstration against Israel on Dam Square in Amsterdam on June 7, 2018. During the protest, he got into a spat with bystanders who disagreed with him, after which he showed them the flag with the cockroach on it.

One of the people the man showed the flag to was a grandchild of Holocaust victims, and this person filed a complaint. The man with the flag was subsequently charged, but the court acquitted him last year. According to the judges at the time, the flag was directed against the State of Israel and not against Jews.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) appealed and the court ruled in favor of the appeal, deciding the flag was indeed offensive to Jews. The court observe that, during World War II, many Jews were "killed in German concentration camps as if they were vermin." The man could also criticize the policy of the state of Israel without the flag, the court said.