The Netherlands: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism

Hat tip Ongehoord Nederland. Translation by Fousesquawk.

Below is a translation of an article appearing in the conservative Dutch news outlet, Ongehoord Nederland and written by Ernst Lissauer. It basically concerns anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, but covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well and raises the question of how that conflict has impacted anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, whose government supports the Palestinian cause. Lissauer also informs us that the Dutch government and the government-affiliated media are not supportive of the peace breakthroughs that President Trump's son-in-law and Middle East emissary, Jared Kushner, has helped orchestrate between Israel and several Muslim states.

* Please note that in paragraph 5, I have added quotation marks on the term, "Jewish-loving" (Jodenminnend). I was troubled by this term because translated to English, it is commonly regarded as an anti-Semitic slur directed at any person perceived as supportive of Jews or Israel. It has been directed at me by certain anti-Semites, and I wear that as a badge of honor. Since Mr Lissauer is clearly supportive of Israel and against anti-Semitism, I was not sure how to interpret the translation. A more exact translation would actually be "Jew-loving", but in English, that comes across as an even stronger and more offensive term. I chose instead to "soften" it by using "Jewish-loving", which is not the way it is commonly said in English ("Jew-loving").

One of the pitfalls of translating is that you often have to deal with nuances, and I think this is just such a case. Thus, I have added quotation marks to indicate that the writer was using the term in irony. That irony is pointing out the hypocrisy of some who were quick to jump on a charge of anti-Semitism because it involved a conservative party (Forum for Democracy) and its leader, Thierry Baudet, while supporting the Palestinian cause and those who would wipe Israel off the face of the map.

https://www.ongehoordnederland.nl/antisemisme-is-niet-dood-het-stinkt-nog/

Anti-Semitism is not dead, It still stinks

Ernst Lissauer 24 December 2020

Anti-Semitism, Jew-Hatred, and the synonymous anti-Israel and anti-Zionism are again in style. Most political parties have long passed (the point of) shame. It is no longer a concept with the Shoa (Holocaust) as a specter, but a political weapon with which a better-arguing opponent can be put aside. That reminds one of a recent industrial genocide upon the Jewish people (which) is hardly taught or understood. The connotation is there: You are a bad person if you are an anti-Semite, but it is always the other who is wrong. That recent past, in which the Netherlands stood "on the wrong side", and betrayed her Jewish subjects, taken and had sent to the extermination factories, is something people prefer not to talk about. Today, all remaining Dutch Jews can easily fit in the Johan Cruyff Arena.

Art treasures stolen from Jews now hang in the country's museums, and family members, as few as there are, have 20 lawyers opposing them when they demand their return. The Stichting Onderzoek Oorlogsmisdaden (Foundation for Investigating War Crimes) wants access to the Central Archives for Special Administration of Justice, where some 300,000 files are located of Dutch who, after the Second World War, were found guilty of war crimes or cooperation with the German occupiers. Due to the privacy of still-living persons, for whom there is a file, the archive will not be public till January 1, 2025. Nazi hunter Arnold Karskens, also director of Omroep Ongehoord Nederland, is proceeding against the State to open the archives earlier. Last May, the Cabinet, for the first time, publicly apologized for the assistance of the Dutch civil service in the mass murder of Dutch Jews. 

(It is) a period that the Netherlands is not proud of and has not yet processed. By designating Jews now as "occupiers" and "oppressors" of "Palestinians", people hope to forget the guilty feelings over their own misdeeds. Naturally, there is no Palestinian people. They are Arabs. Just as there has never been a state called Palestine.  It is the emperor's clothes that are responsible for the indulgence. Because Donald Trump broke through the puppet show with the recognition of Jerusalem, the city that was once founded by the Jews, blowing up the whole fairy tale. He was the boy who screamed that the emperor had no clothes.  There you have the reason you hardly hear anything in the news about the Abraham Accords.

With the recognition of these accords, the guilt complex over the Jewish persecution would return. The Abraham Accords and Peace to Prosperity have definitively changed the Middle East. As the Muslim countries drop their enmity and make peace with the Jewish state, it is noted that within the EU, anti-Semitism is clearly increasing. The EU refuses to recognize the peace accords as long as there is no "solution" for "the Palestinian problem", the problem that the EU itself perpetuates and supports with billions because the Palestinians only expect money; peace is not their revenue model.

The Palestinians are now completely at the mercy of the EU and can expect to get as much as possible from them. Jordan doesn't worry about receiving more hopeless Palestinians, though most are from the (same) origin. The Netherlands co-finances the anti-Semitic schoolbooks of the UNWRA schools. Green-Left (party) publicly supports the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which in most civilized countries is banned. But the (Whatsapp group) from a youth organization of one of the smallest political fractions, FvD (Forum for Democracy), received the full attention of the "Jewish-loving" (quotes added by translator)* Netherlands because that was a scandal. The subsequent investigation was not expected, but the entire party, including the party leader, was accused of anti-Semitism. For two weeks nothing else was written about. In the party program, the motions, the voting behavior, and the Chamber questions by the FvD, there is no hint of anti-Israeli nor anti-Semitic actions to be found-on the contrary. The accusations do not stick also because Thierry Baudet is engaged with a Jewish woman, and his offspring will thus, be Jewish. But the accusations of anti-Semitism have had an effect on those concerned and led to the temporary resignation of Theo Hiddema, in the same week in which the Green-Left placed a strict Islamist candidate for the (Second) Chamber on the election list. Her connections with the Muslim Brotherhood  have since been demonstrated, as well as her presence at an anti-Israel demonstration where swastikas were displayed and anti-Semitic slogans were chanted (I was myself a witness.) For the Green-Left, this is no reason to remove her from the (election) list. "Palestine free from the river to the sea" is a call to genocide and nothing else. Nor does the Cabinet find any problem that the UN voted with anti-Semitic motions. Recently, there was a vote in favor of a motion that the Temple Mount would no longer be considered of Jewish historical origin, rather of pure Arab origin. The unbridled assistance money for illegal building projects for Palestinians and secret donations for a terrorism-related proxy recently came to light. For many years, the Netherlands has supported captured terrorists in Israeli detention, and an attempt was made to infiltrate the Israeli Supreme Court. When, in 2017, Jerusalem was officially recognized as the undivided capital of Israel, our government was quick not to accept the recognition. In addition, our embassy, which moved to Tel Aviv, will not move back to the capital city, where more embassies, along with the US, are opening. 

The Abraham Accords didn't make the news with the Dutch government-affiliated NOS-Journaal, while this could be called the most important event of 2020. Meanwhile, the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia, stands ready to engage in trade and diplomatic relations with Israel. In line with our denying government and the UN, which would prefer not to see peace in the Middle East, the NOS-Journaal showed its own version of an Israeli map. On it, a large part of Israel was pictured as Jordanian territory. Not coincidentally, the part that Jordan illegally occupied during the 1948 war and where the Jewish people have their origin. That is the province of Judea and Samaria, which people prefer to use the name of the occupier: West Bank. During the occupation, pogroms against Jews were committed, 4 years after the Holocaust.

The Netherlands is demanding a Palestinian state in the middle of the original Biblical land, in the hills of Judea (the region where the naming of the Jews comes from) with a view of the lower-lying Israeli coastal area, so that the Palestinian rockets will land better. The same goes for the Golan Heights in the north, which the Netherlands would rather see in the hands of Assad, who from there, can easily bombard Tel Aviv. I am not making this up; those are the facts. Meanwhile, there are officially no more "occupied areas ", insofar they have ever legally existed because with Peace to Prosperity, a new path has been taken. Not even the EU can stop the peace train, which, thanks to Trump, but actually his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is riding through the Middle East. The simple fact is that the Netherlands and most of the political parties are not happy about it (which) fits in with the image that anti-Semitism is still rampant in the Netherlands.