Netherlands inaugurates the Amsterdam Holocaust Museum amid protests over the presence of the president of Israel

The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, has taken advantage of his presence at the inauguration this Sunday of the new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam to call for the release of the Israeli hostages from Hamas who are still held in Gaza. Herzog’s presence at the event had been scheduled for months, but the war in the Strip has now been going on for five months and has resulted in protests by Jewish and Palestinian organizations. There have been clashes between protesters and police amid heavy surveillance around the Portuguese synagogue and the old Jewish quarter, where most of this community was concentrated before World War II. It is the area where the new museum remembers their persecution.

In Waterloo Square, also a very touristy place in the Dutch capital, more and more people have been gathering, sitting on the ground when the police have called for dispersion. There have been fireworks launched at law enforcement forces, and several people have tried to climb onto police vehicles, being repelled by riot police.

The new museum has taken two decades to complete and illustrates the persecution of the Jewish community in the Netherlands. It has government funds and civil society organizations. The Dutch Government Information Service has indicated that the king would attend the event “because it is a place of great national significance and importance.” For his part, Emile Schrijver, director of the center, stressed that Herzog symbolizes the thousands of Dutch Jews who emigrated to Israel.

More than 200 Dutch mosques had asked King William not to receive the politician, and boos were heard as he left the ceremony. In his speech, the monarch pointed out that anti-Semitism “must be prevented so that it does not have influence again.” This museum, he has stated, “shows us that it was not that long ago that [el Holocausto]”. Later, before the demonstration in the street, the king stated: “With the liberation of the Netherlands [tras la guerra] The right to demonstrate returned. “It’s great that we can do it when we disagree about something.”

Amnesty has criticized Herzog’s prominence because he represents a country “that tramples on international law in Gaza,” according to spokespersons for the NGO. President Herzog, in his interventions after the attacks on October 7, did not distinguish between Hamas militiamen and the Palestinian population, holding “the entire Palestinian nation” responsible for the massacre. The assault caused around 1,200 deaths and the capture of more than 240 people as hostages. His words, on the other hand, have been part of the complaint filed by South Africa against Israel for incitement to genocide before the United Nations Court of Justice. In late 2023, Herzog wrote the phrase “I trust you” on a projectile fired over Gaza.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog during the opening ceremony of the Amsterdam Holocaust Museum this Sunday.PATRICK VAN EMST / POOL (EFE)

The first part of the inauguration of the Holocaust Museum took place in the Portuguese synagogue in the Dutch capital. There, Herzog has said that the new space is a reminder of “the atrocities that arise from anti-Semitism.” “Hatred and anti-Semitism are currently flourishing in the world,” he warned. In the street, protesters carried banners showing their rejection of Israel’s actions in the Strip. “This granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor says: ‘Stop the Holocaust in Gaza,’ read one of the posters. “It’s never again now,” said another. “Yes to the museum. Not to Herzog,” he read in another.

Yuval Gal, a member of the Jewish organization Erev Rav, which has called for the demonstrations this Sunday, has urged the Prosecutor’s Office of the Criminal Court (ICC) to take measures to arrest the Israeli president. The radical Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahir has joined the protests in Amsterdam. In their case, men and women have gone separately. Along with King William and Herzog, the President of Austria, Alexander van der Bellen, and the President of the German Bundesrat (equivalent to the Senate), Manuela Schwesig, were present at the inauguration of the Holocaust Museum. The resigned Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, were also part of the delegation.

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