The Amsterdam Jewish community should not be held responsible for a war in the Middle East, Dutch Jewish community leader Hans Weijel told Tamar Uriel-Beeri and Sarah Ben-Nun on The Jerusalem Post Podcast following the antisemitic pogrom on November 7.
Weijel is the vice chair of the Centraal Joods Overleg (CJO), the Central Jewish Consultation in English, which is a centralized group of Jewish organizations that intends to represent the interests of the Jewish community in the Netherlands. He explained the general reaction the community has felt from the Dutch public.
"People hated it," Weijel said of the pogrom. "They said we lost enough Jews during the Shoah [Holocaust]," referencing how Amsterdam lost 80% of its Jewish community to the Nazis.
"People stood beside us and supported us," he continued. "But in the Muslim community, they said 'Of course, it's very bad, but... nobody talks about the 52,000 Gazans who died after the IDF rooted them out, or the genocide, etc.'"
This "but," as Weijel refers to it, is the major battle Dutch Jewry is fighting against.
"Our position of the Centraal Joods Overget as the official representatives of the Jewish community of Holland was always, 'We are not talking and never talk about what Israel is doing,'" he explained. "We don't think that Jews in Holland can be responsible for what's happening in the Middle East. We don't want to import the Middle East war to Amsterdam and to the rest of the cities."
Tensions between Amsterdam Jews and Muslims
Weijel noted that most Dutch Jews and Muslims live in Amsterdam. The two communities didn't have many issues until the war started. However, conflicts in the Middle East end up raising tensions.
Whenever a new war in the Middle East starts, the Muslim and Jewish community leaders would call each other and say that Muslims are not responsible for the actions of those attacking Israel, and Jews are not responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.
"But after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, I didn't hear a peep from the Muslims," Weijel said.
Sicne then, Weijel explained, relations are deteriorating, and the Jewish community is less open to its Muslim neighbors.
"People are getting more afraid, other people are getting more aggressive and anti-Muslim as a community," he said, adding, "The government has even brought more police to synagogues, more police to to Jewish schools, because people are afraid."
Israeli government aid has not been felt
The Israeli government made headlines with their announcement of sending emergency evacuation flights to the Netherlands due to the Amsterdam pogrom. However, according to Weijel, their presence was not felt on the ground.
"We took care of it ourselves," he said, pointing to the efforts of Maccabi in protecting the Jews.
"They found a hotel Israelis could go to," he said. "A lot of Jewish youngsters got in their car because the Israelis didn't trust - and rightly so - the taxis in Holland anymore."
These cars helped save Israeli tourists and brought them to the hotel, which the Jewish community rented out. The Israeli government did send planes, but that was more a political move, and Dutch planes could also have easily been used, Weijel said.
Despite this, the CJO vice chair noted that it was still good that Israel exists to help save Jews.
"We could have managed without them, but it's good we have Israel," he said.