‘Historic’: Dutch Lawmakers Vote to Shutter Antisemitic Mosques in Wake of Amsterdam Pogrom

Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel is set to present a broad strategy in the fight against Jew-hatred on Friday.

By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS

The Netherlands’ House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a motion calling to shutter mosques whose leaders preach the destruction of Israel.

The motion, submitted by the leader of the coalition’s Farmer–Citizen Movement and titled, “The closure of Salafist mosques and institutions that preach the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel,” passed by 91 to 58.

“Noting that antisemitism and incitement to antisemitism are increasing, and this has led to a Jew-hunt, [the resolution] calls on the government to close Salafist mosques and institutions that propagate the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel,” its text states.

“Jew-hunt” refers to a series of assaults against visiting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, which resulted in five moderate injuries and about 20 to 30 minor ones.

Witnesses described about 100 young men of Arab descent assaulting Israelis in a coordinated manner. The European country’s largest-scale antisemitic incident in decades shocked many Dutch Jews and Holocaust survivors.

Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel is set on Friday to present a broad strategy to fight Jew-hatred, which will reportedly build on motions passed in the House of Representatives.

“This is a clear step forward in the fight against antisemitism. The Farmer–Citizen Movement continues to work for a Netherlands in which everyone feels safe,” the party said after Tuesday’s motion passed.

Geert Wilders, who leads the largest faction in the Dutch parliament, the Freedom Party, hailed the passing of the motion as a “historic” moment.

Other measures that passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday included motions calling to designate as terrorists groups that promote the Jewish state’s destruction, outlaw Samidoun and all groups linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and limit government contacts with antisemitic and pro-Hamas NGOs.

Lawmakers also voted to launch an intelligence probe into the Hamas-linked groups that according to Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism were the driving force behind the Nov. 7 pogrom.

In a series of measures aimed at foiling organized attacks in the future, the Dutch parliament passed motions aimed at giving undercover police officers access to closed groups on the Telegram messaging application; forcing social media accounts with more than 500,000 followers to register with The Hague’s Dutch Media Authority; and denying taxi drivers convicted of antisemitism the appropriate certification.

Last year, the Netherlands’ leading Jewish advocacy group reported 379 instances of antisemitism, up from 155 in 2022. While there was a sharp rise in Jew-hatred following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, the total number of incidents before the Hamas attacks was already nearing the 2022 total.

The Hague-based Center for Information and Documentation Israel at the time recommended that several steps be taken by the government, including instituting mandatory Holocaust and Jewish history classes, combating online Jew-hatred, improving the police and legal response and working with sports associations to root out antisemitism from athletic events, with a strong emphasis on soccer matches.