Record number of antisemitic incidents documented in the Netherlands

Dutch Jewry’s watchdog for antisemitism has recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents ever observed in a calendar year.

The group, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, has been monitoring antisemitism in the Netherlands for about 30 years. They divided the 182 incidents in 2019 — an increase of 35 percent from 2018 — into six categories in a report released Monday, including online abuse and vandalism.

Of those, the category of real-life cases — involving threats, insults and assaults on the street or in the workplace — saw the largest increase, more than doubling from 27 cases in 2018 to 61 last year.

Eighteen incidents of real-life antisemitism were committed by activists or supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, who during rallies in central Amsterdam called counter protesters “cockroaches” and kikes,” CIDI wrote.

Far-right antisemitism accounted for one incident in CIDI’s tally.

In one incident, on Dec. 1 in Rotterdam, a boy shouted at a Jewish family outside a synagogue: “Jew, I’ll shoot you dead,” as his parents watched. The Jewish family said the boy’s parents did not intervene.

Antisemitism in the school environment accounted for 11 cases. In one of them, a boy told his Jewish classmate on June 24 in Amstelveen, a small city near Amsterdam, that ”all the Jews must die.”