Anti-Semitism on the rise in Netherlands since outbreak of Israel-Hamas violence

Anti-Semitism has been on the rise in the Netherlands since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7. Both Eddo Verdoner, the National Coordinator for Combating Anti-Semitism, and CIDI, the center for documentation and information on Israel, have received more reports of incidents, RTL Nieuws reports.

“In the Netherlands, we are receiving more and more reports of anti-Semitic incidents. That is very worrying. The speed at which the number of reports has increased this time is unprecedented,” Verdoner told RTL.

The online discrimination hotline has also noticed an increase in the number of reports about discrimination against Jews. “Where we previously received weekly reports of anti-Semitic expression, we now receive them daily,” a spokesperson said.

Hans Wallage, an anti-Semitism researcher and policy advisor at CIDI, told the broadcaster that he “calls municipalities several times a week” to remove swastikas from windows.

A Jewish Dutchman anonymously told RTL Nieuws that he and his community are experiencing a “constant feeling of insecurity.” He experienced anti-Semitism before the war, hiding his yarmulke under a cap when he went outside or hearing insults when he spoke to his father in Hebrew. But he never felt unsafe until the war started. Now, he worries about going to the synagogue because something could happen. “How can a conflict so far away have such a big impact on my life in the Netherlands?” he said.

“With the attacks, Hamas not only wanted to set things on fire there but also to increase contradictions in Western Europe,” Verdoner said about the terrorist attacks that started the war on October 7. “The effects in society are direct and major.” Anti-Semitism is rising all across Europe, he said.

According to Verdoner, anti-Semitism has lost its taboo in the last 10 to 15 years, creating “a fertile ground that serves as a backdrop to the events and consequences of October 7.” It has become increasingly challenging to talk about the Holocaust in class, he said as an example. The word “Jew” is increasingly used as a slur, and older anti-Semitic ideas have emerged.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict polarizes society,” Wallage of CIDI told the broadcaster. “People no longer make a distinction between Israel and the Jewish community. It seems as if the Jewish community is now being held accountable for what is happening in Israel.”