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(JTA) — Protesters against Israel’s conflict in Gaza demonstrated outdoors a ceremony to mark the opening of the Netherlands’ first Holocaust museum on Sunday, citing the presence of the Israeli president.
Greater than 1,000 individuals joined within the protest over the ceremony, which passed off in Amsterdam’s historic Portuguese Synagogue. The protesters got here from the Dutch Palestinian group, Socialists Worldwide and Erev Rav, a neighborhood Jewish anti-Zionist group.
All had been activated after information broke final week that Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, would attend the opening ceremony of the Nationwide Holocaust Museum, 20 years within the making.
An alliance of greater than 200 Dutch mosques petitioned King Willem-Alexander to not attend as deliberate, and the Rights Discussion board, a Dutch Palestinian rights group, referred to as Herzog’s attendance and assembly with the king a “slap within the face for Palestinians who’re watching helplessly as Israel murders their family members and destroys their nation.”
Dutch King Willem-Alexander speaks throughout a gap ceremony for the Nationwide Holocaust Museum of the Netherlands, on the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, as Israeli President Isaac Herzog seems to be on, March 10, 2024. (Patrick Van Emst/ANP/AFP through Getty Photos)
Willem-Alexander did attend the ceremony on Sunday. Neither he nor Herzog immediately addressed the protests, which have for months accompanied distinguished Israelis of their appearances around the globe.
Each Herzog and the anti-Zionist protesters invoked the phrase “By no means once more is now,” a chorus broadly utilized in connection to the Holocaust. Herzog was referring to a international surge in antisemitism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, whereas protesters used the phrase to indicate that Israel’s army marketing campaign in Gaza is akin to the Holocaust.
Activists with the human rights group Amnesty Worldwide put in “detour” indicators across the museum that directed Herzog to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice within the Hague, which is contemplating a genocide cost introduced by South Africa towards Israel.
Activists with Amnesty Worldwide maintain visitors boards exhibiting the best way to the Worldwide Felony Court docket as a protest towards the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, in Amsterdam, March 10, 2024. (Pierre Crom/Getty Photos)
“For us Jews, these museums are a part of our historical past, of our previous,” Joana Cavaco, an Erev Rav activist, mentioned throughout a rally earlier than the ceremony. “How is it attainable that such a sacred area is getting used to normalize genocide as we speak?”
The Jewish Cultural Quarter, which initiated and operates the brand new museum, mentioned in a assertion that it was “bitter” to open the Nationwide Holocaust Museum throughout the conflict. It mentioned that it helps “a simply and safe decision for all these immediately concerned” within the Israel-Hamas conflict, together with Israel’s proper to exist and Palestinians’ proper to autonomy.
The group mentioned Herzog, whose position is essentially ceremonial, represented the house nation of Dutch Holocaust survivors who emigrated to Israel, in addition to Israeli counterpart establishments that supplied paperwork, photographs and photographs to the museum.
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