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Antisemitic Incidents in the Netherlands Surge to Record Levels, New Report Finds
March 29, 2025, Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands: A pro-Palestinian demonstrator burns a hand-fashioned Israeli flag. Photo: James Petermeier/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Antisemitism in the Netherlands surged to alarming levels last year, according to a new report, which found that anti-Jewish incidents across the country reached a “worrying record” last year even after a historic spike following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) — a Dutch Jewish human rights organization that monitors antisemitism — on Thursday released its annual report on antisemitic incidents for 2024, showing an 11 percent increase over the previous all-time high recorded in 2023.
Last year, CIDI recorded 421 antisemitic incidents, a sharp increase from the average of 138 incidents per year the country had experienced from 2012 to 2022, prior to the Hamas-led onslaught on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war.
“This is the highest number since CIDI started keeping track of reports 40 years ago,” Naomi Mestrum, the organization’s director, said in a statement, adding that preliminary data from the first quarter of 2025 “suggests that the trend is continuing.”
In 2024 heeft het aantal antisemitische incidenten in Nederland een zorgwekkend record bereikt. Er werden 421 meldingen bij CIDI gedaan, een stijging van 11% t.o.v. 2023, dat al een historisch hoog aantal incidenten liet zien.https://t.co/IbOL4YHxnW pic.twitter.com/ffvJ5tTv1w
— CIDI
(@CIDI_nieuws) April 24, 2025
In the last two years, the number of antisemitic incidents in the Netherlands has surged by 305 percent compared to its average from 2012 to 2022, prompting local Jewish community leaders to call on authorities to take stronger action against the rising wave of antisemitic harassment following the Hamas atrocities in Israel.
According to the study, the Hamas-Israel war is often used as a justification for antisemitism. The report also observed a rise in antisemitic hate crimes in public settings, where visibly identifiable Jews were more frequently subjected to insults, threats, and intimidation.
“The most dramatic increases were seen in public spaces, where antisemitic incidents surged by 45 percent,” CIDI said in a statement. “Visibly Jewish individuals were increasingly subjected to verbal abuse, threats and harassment.”
Last year, Israeli soccer fans were violently attacked in Amsterdam after watching the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team compete against the Dutch club Ajax in a European League match. At the time, Femke Halsema, the city’s mayor, called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”
The 117-page document by CIDI also recorded a 44 percent increase in vandalism targeting Jewish property.
In several universities across the Netherlands, there has been a rise in anti-Israel protests where antisemitic slogans are frequently chanted. As a result of ongoing threats and intimidation, the report said Jewish students are increasingly avoiding classes.
According to the study, antisemitism has also spread across social media and other online platforms, with hateful messages and antisemitic stereotypes becoming more widespread and normalized.
“Social media algorithms play a major role in strengthening and spreading antisemitic ideas more quickly,” Mestrum said.
However, CIDI noted that its figures did not include social media activity, which it is investigating separately.
Regarding the 421 incidents recorded last year, the Dutch group said it received about 1,700 reports in total but only counted those it assessed as being “indisputably antisemitic.”
In light of its findings, CIDI urged for a “strong and consistent government response” to combat rising antisemitism and ensure the safety of the Jewish community.
“That means investing in education, but also a firm and visible approach to antisemitism in schools and social media, stopping subsidies to cultural institutions that exclude Jewish artists, banning terrorist and extremist groups that spread hatred, and implementing a zero-tolerance policy in the criminal prosecution of anti-Semitic crimes,” the statement read.
The Dutch government’s National Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism, Eddo Verdoner, called CIDI’s findings “shameful,” stating that antisemitic expressions are becoming increasingly common.
“I hear heartbreaking stories from children, students, and adults who are harassed and mocked because of their Jewish identity,” Verdoner wrote in a post on X. “They hide a Star of David necklace, don’t dare to wear a kippah, or conceal their Jewish background out of fear.”
The Netherlands, which saw the highest percentage of Jewish victims in Western Europe during World War II, with at least 75 percent of its Jewish population being murdered, is now home to approximately 40,000 Jews.
The post Antisemitic Incidents in the Netherlands Surge to Record Levels, New Report Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.