Protesters opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza demonstrated outside a ceremony to mark the opening of the Netherlands’ first Holocaust museum, citing the presence of the Israeli president.
More than 1,000 people joined in the protest over the ceremony, which took place in Amsterdam’s historic Portuguese Synagogue. The protesters came from the Dutch Palestinian community, Socialists International and Erev Rav, a local Jewish anti-Zionist group.
An alliance of more than 200 Dutch mosques petitioned King Willem-Alexander not to attend as planned, and the Rights Forum, a Dutch Palestinian rights group, called Herzog’s attendance and meeting with the king a “slap in the face for Palestinians who are watching helplessly as Israel murders their loved ones and destroys their country.”
Before Germany’s occupation, some 140,000 Jews called the Netherlands home. More than three-quarters of Dutch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
