In a recent action (August 2011), a court in the The Hague censured ADO Den Haag, a Football (soccer) club that failed to stop anti-Semitic chanting at a home match against Amsterdam club Ajax in March. The case was presented to the court by an organization that fights anti-Semitism after club supporters chanted de Joden (English: the Jews) at Ajax players.
One might assume this decision shows that the Dutch are acting to fight hatred. But this one action could be quite misleading. This was a decision that was acceptable to the Dutch Liberal Establishment since it supports their negative attitudes towards Football Hooligans.
Indeed, it is not clear if the intent of the anti-Semitic chants was hatred against Jews. In March, this top league club from The Hague won a game against Ajax from Amsterdam. During the match ADO supporters frequently chanted “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the Gas” and “Horrible Cancer Jews.”
However, the Jews at whom ADO supporters aimed were not Jews at all. They were the fanatic fans of Ajax who in a distant past had started to refer to themselves as “Jews.” These supporters accompanied their team with Israeli flags and Stars of David to the stadiums. Some fans even had tattoos of the Star of David. There was a time that when Ajax scored a goal, their fans would sing the Israeli song Hava Nagila. Ajax has had a few Jewish board members and it has a small number of non-violent Jewish supporters. They make up perhaps 1% of those present at home games.
But the Netherlands has a much more serious problem of anti-Semitism. Jews are routinely singled out for both verbal and physical violence. Manfred Gerstenfeld in an article published in 2004 by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, presents a problematic picture for Jews in the country.
Gerstenfeld tells us about Dani Evers, a visitor from Israel to the Netherlands, who wrote on a Dutch Jewish website: "There is something that disturbs me [in the Netherlands]. People tell me I have to disguise my identity. It is not advisable to walk here with a kippa. I have to hide my tsitsit, the religious fringes which usually come out of my clothes. The synagogue where I will pray is unlikely to have a nicely designed bulletin board outside with the name of the community where they announce the times of the service."
Gerstenfeld gives us the words of Ruben Vis, secretary of the NIK, the umbrella organization of the Dutch Ashkenazi community, who said that he is regularly insulted when wearing a kippa in public. Sometimes he is pushed in the tramway. He now never wears his kippa in the western and eastern quarters of Amsterdam, and rarely in the center of the city places where there are many Dutchmen of Moroccan descent.
Another incident is described by youth rabbi Menachem Sebbag who related how a Dutch youngster of Moroccan descent approached his wife with a screwdriver and said, "I'll cut your heart out." Sebbag - who has a Moroccan father - understands the Arabic words with which he is insulted, such as: "I'm going to slaughter you like a pig." Sometimes they shout at him: "Sharon supporter, murderer." He now goes out as little as possible and says, "Since I stopped going anywhere, I have less problems." Once he had a Coca Cola can thrown at his head. The Dutch papers usually mention that the perpetrators of these crimes are of Moroccan descent.
Indeed, Gerstenfeld himself witnessed the presence of several guards around the hall where he attended a Bar Mitzvah reception in one of Amsterdam's major hotels. I asked whether this is common. The reply was: "No, only at Jewish receptions."
Dutch violent anti-Semitism can be traced to the increase of Muslims living in the Netherlands. The country has just under a million Muslims, representing 5.7 percent of the population, according to "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," an October 2009 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington.
It is from this Muslim immigrant community that many of the acts of anti-Semitism can be traced. This has reached a point where Frits Bolkestein, a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), recommended in December of 2010 that "Dutch Jews had better emigrate to Israel." According to him, the anti-Semitic threats by Moroccan Muslims are great and will only increase.
This Muslim community also has seen its extremists act against the Christian community with young Muslims calling out "One dog less" – as they jeer and mock at Christian funerals, pound hearse with their fists. And they can also be found among the anti-Gay activists.
The situation has been aggravated by a refusal to act against Muslim-linked anti-Semitism because many among the Dutch left believe in a vague form of multi-culturalism. They think Dutch society should connect to some extent to the specificity of residents of non-European origin - who are commonly called allochtones in the Netherlands - creating a place in society for their values without assimilating them. They also have a strong anti-Israel orientation and associate acts against Dutch Jews as somewhat legitimate in the struggle for the State of Palestine.
On the other hand, recent years has seen a reaction by the public against Muslims - or more explicitly, Dutchmen of Moroccan origin – because they don’t believe these immigrants will ever be integrated. An anti-immigration “Party for Freedom” led by Geert Wilders nearly tripled its representation in parliament, from 9 seats to 24, in the 2010 general election, making it the third largest party.
A Dutch court recently (June 2011) acquitted politician Geert Wilders of inciting hatred against Muslims when he compared Islam with Nazism and called for a ban on the Quran. Wilders, who has lived under constant police protection due to death threats since 2004, has never called for violence or endorsed it.
Presiding Judge Marcel van Oosten said some of Wilders' comments — such as saying foreign influences are "breeding" in the Netherlands and threatening to overrun Dutch culture — may be "crude and denigrating." But he said they did not amount to inciting hatred and must be seen in a wider context of a fierce national debate over immigration policy and multiculturalism.
So the Dutch scene is undergoing a high degree of ferment regarding its Jewish community and its Muslim community. At the present time, it is 'uncomfortable' to be obviously Jewish in the Netherlands. It is not clear what the future of this community will be – to assimilate and hide their connection to Judaism, to leave the country, or to eventually experience a greater degree of security as the general society reacts to the militant anti-Semites and reduces their influence.
