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‘We Have Had Enough’: Dutch Jews Demand Action Against Rising Antisemitic Harassment
Supporters of Hamas demonstrate in Amsterdam on March 23. Photo: Reuters/Romy Arroyo Fernandez
Jewish community leaders in The Netherlands issued a plaintive warning on Thursday concerning the continuing rise of antisemitism in the country, declaring: “We have had enough.”
In common with other EU member states, antisemitism has risen precipitously in The Netherlands since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel, with an 800 percent increase in the number of incidents recorded in the weeks immediately following the terrorist organization’s atrocities. Approximately 30,000 Jews live in The Netherlands.
High profile incidents this year have included an angry demonstration by pro-Hamas activists outside a new museum dedicated to the Holocaust, the disruption of a concert by a popular Dutch singer who has family ties to Israel, and the vicious harassment of a Jewish woman resident in an Amsterdam suburb by neighbors who discovered that her daughter serves in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Speaking to the newspaper De Telegraaf, Chanan Hertzberger — the chair of the CJO Jewish communal organization — revealed that his son had been beaten up by antisemites after he played in a soccer match. “Our youth is no longer safe at educational institutions: they are canceled, attacked, intimidated,” Hertzberger said. “It is rife and we have had enough. We are normal Dutch people and also want to be considered and treated as such. Our civil liberties are at stake; more and more Jews feel threatened and intimidated and are hiding Jewish symbols.”
Hertzberger slammed Dutch politicians for offering assurances in private but doing little to stem the antisemitic tide in public. “Where are the Ministers of Education, Mariëlle Paul and Robbert Dijkgraaf?” he asked. He also criticized former deputy prime minister Wouter Koolmees, who took over as the CEO of Netherlands Railways (NS) last October, for failing to prevent supporters of Hamas from blockading 15 train stations around the country in a series of protests during January and February.
“I was in contact with Koolmees about the sit-ins at the stations. He shows good will, but cannot do anything about it, he says. But can he at least openly say that he has major problems with those actions?” Hertzberger continued.
Hertzberger’s comments coincided with widespread coverage in the Dutch press of a Jewish woman in the Amsterdam suburb of Amstelveen who was intimidated and threatened outside her own home on Wednesday by Hamas supporters. She has also been targeted with a series of obscenely-worded leaflets in her neighborhood highlighting the fact that her daughter is a soldier in the IDF.
“Neighborhood residents pay attention! A child murderer lives nearby! This genocidal maniac has recently returned from her murderous activities and will be tried soon. As local residents, you have the right to know that such an individual can get close to your children,” one leaflet declared. It also specified the names of both the woman and her daughter, her address, and her place of work, claiming: “She sent her pussy daughter to Israel to kill babies. She is also an accomplice!”
However, Dutch police remain unwilling to classify the woman’s ordeal as an antisemitic incident. “Only when we know the whole story will we see what exactly we are dealing with,” a spokesperson for the Amsterdam police told the broadcaster RTL on Thursday.
Meanwhile, last weekend, Hamas supporters wrecked a concert in the city of Waalwijk by a popular Dutch singer, Lenny Kuhr. Now aged 74, Kuhr converted to Judaism in the 1970s when she married an Israeli man, and has children and grandchildren living in Israel, one of whom reportedly serves in the IDF. As Kuhr was performing last Saturday, a group of pro-Hamas thugs stormed the stage, screaming epithets including “terrorist” and “murderer” at the veteran singer.
Subsequently, Palestine Action NL — an antisemitic, pro-Hamas campaign group — threatened to carry out similar actions at other concerts given by Kuhr during her current concert tour. In response, Dutch Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz condemned the attack on Kuhr as antisemitic. “This has nothing to do with being pro-Palestine,” she said. “It is anti-Jew. Let us name and treat this for what it is.”
On Tuesday evening, a group of Dutch parliamentarians issued a statement decrying “the horrifying return of Jew-hatred” and calling for it to “stop, now.” Two parliamentary factions — the far right Forum for Democracy (FvD) and DENK, a pro-Islamist party launched by two MPs of Turkish origin — refused to sign the statement.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte also spoke out against the rise in antisemitism, telling the Council of Ministers on Thursday that he was “very concerned that people in the Netherlands with a Jewish background are currently being harassed because of that background, and because of the situation in Israel.”
The post ‘We Have Had Enough’: Dutch Jews Demand Action Against Rising Antisemitic Harassment first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
The post Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday

Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
The post Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
The post Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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