Thursday, February 27, 2020

Contrary to Prosecution and Judges Minister Calls Incident Antisemitic


Minister of justice Ferdinand Grapperhaus has said in parliament that the man who attacked with a knife in an Amsterdam market two Jewish colleagues had antisemitic motifs. This has earlier been denied by the prosecution and the judges.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Imam verbally attacks Parliamentary Inquiry Commission


A parliamentary inquiry commission in the Netherlands investigates the foreign financing of mosques. Imam Suhayb Salam of the alFitrah-mosque in Utrecht appeared for it and accused the commission of discrimination. He said to the parliamentarians: the law has given my rights and you are violating them. He refused to stand and take the oath.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Dutch Train Conductor puts inappropriate Song about Jews on Train Loudspeaker



On a train leaving at night from Tilburg to Rotterdam burg a train conductor put on a song saying “From where come the Jews? From Israel, which is far away. Do also super Jews live there? Do Jews like soccer? As long as they support Ajax.” Ajax is the leading Amsterdam soccer club. A passenger on that train complained to NS, the National Dutch Railways The Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) said that it was painful and stupid that this happened in a train of the National Railways. “It is unacceptable.” The NS  finally offered apologies.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Polish Auschwitz Museum Reprimands Dutch Distributor for Selling Nazi Books




The Polish Auschwitz Memorial Museum has called on Amazon and the Dutch distributor Bol.com to stop immediately with the sale of “hate mongering, horrible and antisemitic books.” These companies sell books of Nazi war criminals Heinrich Himmler en Julius Streicher. Bol.com understands the motifs of the request but has replied that it will not withdraw the books from sale.

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Minister: We Should Not Gloss Over Allied Killings of Dutch Citizens



Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice said that he cannot justify that the authorities remain silent about the mistaken bombardment on February 22, 1944 by the Allied Forces of the Dutch town of Nijmegen in which almost 800 civilians were killed.  He said so at the annual memorial for the massacre.  He referred to the silence of the government in London and later governments until the 21st century.  He quoted Mark Twain, “The truth hurts. Silence kills.”

Thursday, February 20, 2020

The financial position of pension funds declines


As share markets decline, the big Dutch pension funds have problems with covering their long-term commitments.  The ABP, the large Dutch pension fund has only 94 Euro cent for every Euro it owes to employees in future. The ABP says that this is not only the result of the declining share markets, but also due to the low interest rates.




Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Major Growth in Antisemitic Incidents in 2019



The CIDI organization publishes a Monitor of Antisemitic Incidents every year.  In 2019, the number of antisemitic incidents was 35% higher than the 135 registered in 2018.  This is the highest number registered in the 30 years that these statistics have existed.  CIDI says that the anti-Israel demonstrations at Dam Square in Amsterdam very often lead to antisemitic expressions.