King to attend Holocaust Museum opening despite controversy around Israeli president

King Willem-Alexander will attend the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam despite a call from over 200 mosques not to. The museum is “of great significance and national importance,” so the King will be there, the Government Information Service (RVD) informed ANP upon request. The mosques asked the King not to attend the opening on Sunday because Israeli President Isaac Herzog will also be present.

According to the Islamic places of worship, united in the regional partnership K7, Herzog is “very controversial” given the situation in Gaza. At the end of 2023, he wrote the text “I trust you” on a massive grenade that was fired into the densely populated Gaza, the organization said in a statement.

Over 30,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, including about 12,500 children, Al Jazeera reported based on figures from the Health Ministry in Gaza from March 6. That is 1 out of every 75 people in Gaza dead. Over 72,295 are hurt, and 8,000 people are missing, many trapped under the rubble. Over half a million people are on the brink of famine in Gaza, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday. Children are dying of hunger, and Israel only allowed half the planned aid missions for February, he said.

K7 called Herzog’s arrival “a huge blow for anyone concerned about the fate of the Palestinian people and values and justice.” Herzog states that innocent children, fathers, and mothers in Gaza must be treated as terrorists, the mosques said. The Dutch government should not welcome him. “But certainly not our King. We, therefore, ask your majesty not to participate in Herzog’s reception.”

The King will not heed this call. “The Holocaust Museum is a national museum with an international character, which is why several heads of state have been invited,” the RVD said. In addition to Herzog, these are Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and the German Federal Council President Manuela Schwesig.

Willem-Alexander will receive a tour of the Holocaust Museum on Sunday. The museum tells the history of the persecution of the Jews with 2,500 objects, rediscovered photos and films, sound recordings, and installations. The King will also give a speech in the nearby Portuguese Synagogue.

Herzog’s attendance was announced on Wednesday by the Jewish Cultural Quarter, which the museum falls under. The organization called it “sorry that we will open the National Holocaust Museum during the war in Israel and Gaza, but we expect a dignified ceremony that will do justice to the great national and international importance of our museum.”

A demonstration will happen on Waterlooplein in Amsterdam at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday against Herzog’s presence at the opening of the National Holocaust Museum. One of the demonstrators, the Jewish organization Erev Rav, called for the president to be “arrested this Sunday for inciting genocide against the Palestinians.”

Erev Rav is demonstrating against Herzog because he leads “a state that commits genocide, or ‘plausibly commits genocide’ in the words of the International Court of Justice. Genocide must never again be tolerated, let alone normalized.”

Human rights organization The Rights Forum, which stands up for the rights of Palestinians and others, called Herzog guilty of “genocidal incitement.” According to The Rights Forum, it should be “unthinkable” that “he sets foot on Dutch territory, other than to answer for himself before the International Criminal Court.”