Yeşilgöz finds planned pro-Palestinian sit-ins at train stations anti-Semitic

According to VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz, the planned pro-Palestinian demonstrations at train stations next Monday are anti-Semitic. "It is what it is, let's be honest," she said about it on the TV program WNL op Zondag. According to her, the demonstrators are legitimizing the terrorist group Hamas "intentionally or unintentionally." "I cannot imagine that that is the intention."

Yeşilgöz also appealed to the demonstrators themselves: “You have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror. How can you talk about the Palestinian cause at this moment? While also, intentionally or unintentionally, almost legitimizing or justifying Hamas in this way. You have to think about your own actions.”

Monday marks exactly one year since Hamas carried out a terrorist attack on a festival in Israel, killing more than a thousand people and taking hundreds hostage.

The VVD leader understands party members who believe that railway company NS facilitates anti-Semitism by allowing the sit-ins. Five local VVD factions have sent a letter to the NS. At the same time, Yeşilgöz emphasizes that "demonstrating is a great good" and that the possibilities to stop such demonstrations are limited.

The local VVD members called on president-director Wouter Koolmees to show that the NS "now" no longer facilitates anti-Semitism. They refer to the role that the NS played in the deportation of Jews during the Second World War.

The NS responded by saying that it finds "intolerance, anti-Semitism, and all other forms of discrimination" unacceptable. The railway company is in contact with mayors in municipalities where demonstrations are taking place and urges them to "monitor very closely and intervene where necessary." On Sunday, an NS spokeswoman said the company would stick to this response.