Most Dutch Jewish people experience more antisemitism than five years ago

Most of the Jewish people in the Netherlands think that there is more antisemitism than five years ago, a study that was released on Thursday showed. Around 83 percent think this, which is higher than the European average of 80 percent. Almost all the Jewish people who live in the Netherlands have had to deal with antisemitism in their daily lives.

Jewish people deal with antisemitism on the streets and online, according to the third edition of a survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). The agency monitors racism and xenophobia in the European Union.

Almost one in eight Jewish people in the Netherlands do not usually wear Jewish symbols in public for safety reasons; almost half of the people surveyed said that they never do. This is slightly more than the European average.

Over a quarter of the Jewish people in the Netherlands feel discriminated against, which is also more than the 20 percent average in Europe. As is the case in other places in Europe, Jewish people are pestered and sometimes even attacked in the Netherlands. They worry that this will increase.

This survey was conducted before the attack of Hamas on Israel on 7 October and the Israeli military actions that followed this. Researchers also gathered information from 12 organizations of Jewish communities after these events. Some of the organizations reported an increase in antisemitism of more than 400 percent.

Almost 8,000 Jewish people from 13 European countries took part in the study. It is estimated that 96 percent of the Jewish people in the European Union live in these countries.

"Europe is witnessing an antisemitism wave which is partly caused by the conflict in the Middle East. This severely limits Jewish people in their opportunities to live a safe and dignified life," said FRA director Sirpa Rautio. The Jewish communities need to be protected "against all forms of hate and intolerance, online as well as offline."

De Nationaal Coördinator Antisemitismebestrijding, also known as the national coordinator for battling antisemitism, Eddy Verdoner, said in the NRC that he is not surprised by the results of European research and also not by the poor position that the Netherlands is in this regard.

He claims that the tolerance the Netherlands is known for "increasingly resembles indifference. And this means that we tolerate things that are unacceptable, such as anti-Semitic chants in football stadiums. For a long time, we pretended that that was just part of it, but of course, that is not the case."

The FRA conducted the same survey in 2013 and 2018.