In response to rising antisemitism, Justice and Security Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz wants to more clearly criminalise Holocaust denial.
The Penal Code is to be tightened up, according to the minister.
The cabinet also wants to take stricter action against online hate messages in which Jews are targeted and antisemitic proclamations in football stadiums will be dealt with more harshly.
“We need to draw a line together,” said minister Yeşilgöz, who is deeply concerned about the increase in antisemitic expressions and incidents.
“Step by step, Jew-hatred seems to be becoming parlous. Antisemites seem to express it less and less covertly. People are not even ashamed of it anymore,” the minister said at the Ronny Naftaniel Lecture, organised by the Jewish Humanitarian Fund.
A bill is pending to include in the Penal Code an explicit ban on condoning, denying or grossly trivialising the Holocaust.
By itself, this is already punishable in the Netherlands, but not yet with a separate description in the law. The punishment remains the same: a maximum of one year in prison.
