A statue in Amsterdam of Anne Frank, the teenage diarist famous for her diary recounting her two years in hiding from the Nazis, was vandalized with the phrase “Free Gaza.” The vandalism was done using red paint.
Images published online show that the base of the statue read “Free Gaza,” and both of the girl’s hands were painted the same blood-red color.
This is the second act of vandalism against the statue in less than a month. The first incident was reported by the local television channel AT5.
An investigation into the vandalism is underway, but no suspects have been identified at this time.
Anti-Semitic incidents have increased worldwide since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas.
The conflict began on October 7 when Islamist militants killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
In response, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 40,000 people in the territory.
Anne Frank is one of the most significant figures of the Jewish community in the Netherlands. She was killed in a Nazi camp during the Holocaust, which resulted in the extermination of 75 percent of the country’s estimated 140,000 Jews at the time.
Her diary remains one of the most important accounts of the Holocaust.