2024-03-11 19:33:42
A number of statesmen, including Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog, opened the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam today in a ceremony marred by protests by Muslim and pro-Palestinian organizations, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
Speakers, including Herzog, warned that anti-Semitism was on the rise.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander called on people to declare themselves against anti-Semitism. “Toxic words and actions can have deadly consequences,” he warned.
The Israeli president said: “Anti-Semitism and hatred are once again flourishing worldwide.” He urged people to fight it, saying: “Never again is something that starts now.”
Among the guests were the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, and the President of Austria, Alexander van der Bellen.
Germany and Austria contributed financially to the construction of the museum. The opening ceremony took place in the nearly 400-year-old Portuguese Synagogue, not far from the new museum.
Near the ceremony site, more than 1,000 people demonstrated against Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians during the Gaza war and against Herzog’s visit.
Chanting loudly, they accused Israel of mass murder. During the demonstration, there were also clashes with the police, DPA points out.
“We must fight the beginnings (of anti-Semitism) together, everywhere in Europe,” said Manuela Schwezig, speaker of Germany’s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, and premier of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The current demonstrations in Germany against hatred, violence and far-right extremism show that “there is no place for anti-Semitism in our society,” added Schwezig, who represented the German president at the ceremony.
Critics point to Herzog’s controversial statements on the Gaza war, which were also cited as problematic by the UN International Court of Justice in the genocide proceedings against Israel initiated by the Republic of South Africa, DPA said.