By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
AMSTERDAM/THE HAGUE (Worthy News) – The Dutch leader of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) said Monday that he met Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, a day after pro-Palestine protesters disturbed the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.
Geert Wilders, whose pro-Israel PVV won the Dutch elections in November, explained that in their talks, he had pledged his full support to Israel in fighting terrorism.
“I told him I am proud that he visits the Netherlands and that Israel has, and always will have, my full support in its fight against terror,” Wilders wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, near a picture of him with the president.
Wilders has, in recent days, condemned pro-Palestine protesters shouting slogans such as “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” which he says calls for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.
On Sunday, riots broke out when pro-Palestine protesters shouting similar slogans attempted to break through police barriers around the National Holocaust Museum and nearby Portuguese Synagogue.
They protested against the presence of President Herzog and King Willem-Alexander at the ceremony, saying Israel was responsible for “genocide” in Gaza. Israel says it wages war against Hamas after it killed some 1,200 people in Israel on October 7.
At the opening ceremony, Herzog called for prayers for peace and the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel, while protesters could be heard booing nearby.
SUSPECTS FREE
All 13 protesters detained in Sunday’s riots were free Monday, authorities said, angering Wilders. “It is an unprecedented insult that the people who yesterday in Amsterdam shouted anti-Semitic slogans, shouted that they were friends of Hamas, stormed police vans, verbally abused Jewish children, waved false [Palestinian] flags,” he wrote on X.
Wilders added that they “taunted a head of state of a friendly country, “ in reference to President Herzog of Israel.
He noted that it happened “so close to the opening ceremony” during Herzog’s visit to the National Holocaust Museum. “It seems a political action by the extreme left-wing mayor of Amsterdam. Irresponsible,” he added.
While she allowed the protests, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has condemned “age-old antisemitism has nestled in a dark place and is increasingly rearing its ugly head.”
Sunday’s opening came days after police in the Netherlands detained 18 anti-Israel activists who staged a sit-in in the lobby of the Dutch Parliament in The Hague on Tuesday.
Some 25 activists defied the ban on protests in the building, shouting slogans including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
In a separate incident on Tuesday, pro-Palestinian agitators interrupted a debate in the plenary hall with chants of “Ceasefire now, Netherlands, shame, blood on your hands.” They were removed by security.
“ANTISEMITIC SCUM”
Geert Wilders condemned the protestors as “leftist antisemitic scum.”
“I’ve been working here, in this parliament, for about 25 years, and what I have heard and seen today, here in this room, but certainly also downstairs in the building, is pure hatred of Jews. It’s hatred of Israel. It’s antisemitism,” Wilders added during a debate following the incidents.
“I’m ashamed that it is apparently possible that those people come in here, and it takes half an hour before the police remove them,” he stressed, calling on authorities to “severely punish” the protestors.
Despite his popularity among voters, Wilders has unsuccessfully tried to form a government since the elections.
The main parties trying to form a governing with him will meet again on Monday to agree on what form a possible cooperation could have. They have been reluctant to work with Wilders in part due to his harsh rhetoric about Islam, which he considers an evil ideology.
Under pressure, he abandoned his more radical plans, such as closing mosques and banning the Koran, deemed a holy book by Muslims. Wilders once compared the Koran to a cartoon book about Donald Duck, the Walt Disney character that isn’t on Wilder’s blocklist.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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