Amsterdam mayor visits Holocaust survivor confronted by protesters at museum opening
Mayor Femke Halsema visited Holocaust survivor Rudie Cortissos on Monday. He was confronted by jeering demonstrators protesting against the presence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on Sunday.
Cortissos and his great-granddaughter helped bless the museum at the opening. King Willem-Alexander presented him with a mezuzah, which he attached to the doorpost as a symbolic blessing of the building.
Whistling and shouting demonstrators were clearly audible during this ceremony. According to several witnesses, anti-Semitic slogans could also be heard from the protesters.
After meeting with Cortissos, Mayor Halsema said that he is “resilient but also affected” by the shouts and jeers, NOS reports. “I let him know how horrible and unfair I find it,” she wrote. “I told him how sorry I was and that there is never, ever an excuse for anti-Semitism.”
The demonstration happened on Waterlooplein, a few dozen meters from the Portuguese Synagogue, where some of the museum’s opening ceremonies happened. The question of whether the demonstrators swerve too close has been the subject of discussion all week among Amsterdam and national politicians. Halsema has faced criticism from PVV leader Geert Wilders and other members of parliament.
Earlier this week, Halsema stuck to her decision to allow the demonstration. “The right to demonstrate is part of a free and democratic society,” Halsema said on Monday. “It gives a voice to everyone who disagrees with something. That does not detract from the lasting value of the Holocaust Museum in our city.”
The demonstration was against the Israeli president attending and playing a part in the National Holocaust Museum’s opening ceremony. The demonstrators found it incomprehensible that he would be invited to open the museum focused on the genocide of Jewish people in World War II while his country was slaughtering Palestinian people in Gaza by the thousands. Herzog himself was involved in the attacks, a consortium of mosques pointed out ahead of the museum’s opening. In December, he wrote the words “I trust you” on a massive grenade shortly before it was fired on Gaza.
Over 31,184 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, including about 12,300 children, Al Jazeera reported based on figures from the Health Ministry in Gaza from March 12. That is more than 1 out of every 75 people in Gaza dead. Over 72,889 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.
Israel’s incessant bombing of Gaza was prompted by Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7. About 1,139 people were killed in those attacks.
