The Amsterdam Pogrom, two years later

On the second anniversary of the pogrom of Amsterdam, I am glad to announce that the problems have been mostly “resolved.” For instance, the next match against an Israeli football club has to be played without Israeli fans. After two years of inverting the truth, the Jews are no longer the victim of the violence targeting them. Even the word itself has been retroactively scrubbed from the headlines. Nothing ever happened and if it did happen, it was justified.

Collusion

In this collective rewriting of recent history, lays another serious problem within Dutch society. The collusion of politicians, state news agencies, and the few remaining press outlets. Even news organizations who are not technically part of the government, have changed past headlines and articles to present a more politically favorable version of the attacks in Amsterdam. It should be no surprise that those news organizations get a lot of support from ruling authorities, and even special tax exemptions.

In this opinion corridor, the wave of violence against Jews is ignored, trivialized or even celebrated. In the past two years, the Dutch press has made no effort to challenge their biases and no week passes by without some lie or distortion. This was all to clear when the war with Iran erupted, and Israel and the United States were the aggressor in the media. Painting a broader picture would cast a different light on Israel’s actions, but that never happened. Jews with the strength to fight back against violent threats are not tolerated in Dutch public discourse.

People that hate Jews and their state are given free reign by the Dutch legal system. A foundation in The Netherlands which has been collecting funds for Hamas for 15 years, was never disbanded. One known financier of global terrorism was told 10 years ago to stop… But there were no consequences. This summer, the man behind it was even sent home because criminal intent could not be proven. The court even praised the cunning of the criminal, but saw no reason for punishment. Other Hamas proxies go free altogether, even when our secret service warns about them.

Meanwhile, demonstrators are marching around with Hamas flags praising their actions, and the Dutch government respects it as freedom of speech. When people were expressing their support for ISIS in public 10 years ago, they were arrested. Supporting terrorism is not transgressive in the eyes of Dutch government, when its violence targets Jews. In fact, people carrying sings with ‘FCK HMS’ were told by the police to put their signs away.

Legitimizing theft

But our government has not just stood by as society radicalized. They introduced an embargo against products from Judea and Samaria. The fact that many of those villages originally existed before the State of Israel, does not matter. Even East Jerusalem, including Temple Mount, has not been excluded. The message is clear: these lands belonged to Jordan and once you steal something from a Jew, he has no right to get it back. The current Dutch government can therefore pride themselves with the first antisemitic decree since the Second World War.

This embargo had to be implemented outside of existing legal frameworks though. In court, the Dutch state argued that they had to embargo Judea and Samaria as a counterterrorism action. That foreign trade is an EU-controlled domain, does not matter if you just repackage the issue. All the while, additional laws to ban the glorification of terrorism has been in draft for 20 years, while the extrajudicial banning of Jewish products could be implemented in 4 months.

Now, should Jews in The Netherlands have something to fear? Well, the Dutch state has recently prosecuted thousands of innocent civilians without due cause in a large benefits scandal. Public prosecutors worked together with courts and government agencies to destroy lives on a grand scale. They hid evidence from defendants and the court assumed guilty. The agencies behind it silenced whistleblowers and even the press initially chose the side of the government. This benefits scandal shows what the Dutch state is capable of. In light of this, it will only be matter of time before the first kangaroo court starts targeting Jews in The Netherlands.

Democratic decay

Violence against Jews in The Netherlands has become common place, and on days like October 7 people even celebrate the death of Jews 4500 km away. But it’s not enough to just attack Jews, anything related to Jews needs to be corrupted: from the Eurovision boycott to museums cancelling Jewish expositions. One milestone in this corruption, was a remembrance service for the Nakba in Utrecht. Three days after the Dutch memorial services for the victims of World War II, the wreaths at the monument were chucked aside to remember the Arab victims of Israel’s founding. Not even Dutch independence and democracy can be respected, if a Jew stands to benefit from it.

Which all paints a bleak future for Jews in The Netherlands. What point is there in having the right to vote, to petition our government or to go to court, if all these systems come with such strong antisemitic convictions? In fact, these institutions will gladly sabotage their own legitimacy though their double standards and selective justice. It’s hard to think of a future where the Dutch state remains a functional democracy, whatever might happen with the last Jews.

In the end, democratic backsliding is a serous concern for many in the world and The Netherlands is no exception. But for the first time in two thousand years, Jews in the Diaspora have an alternative. They can go to a place that might not be perfect, but where their Jewish identity will not strip them of their rights and dignity. In the end, Jews living in a dictatorship would still be better off if they are the majority for once: Israel is and will remain the only place where Jews are truly save, no matter which government is formed.