SWC Urges Dutch Prime Minister to Declare BDS and Similar Forms of Incitement Unconstitutional

May 28, 2016

“Will it take Hitler Youth-style attacks on Jewish stores in Amsterdam for your Foreign Minister to admit that BDS hate-speech, resulting in violent hate-crime, is a ‘human right’ only for Fascists and terrorists?” Paris, 28 May 2016 In a letter to Mark Rutte, Netherlands Prime Minister, Dr. Shimon Samuels, SWC Director for International Relations, expressed outrage at, “…His colleague, Foreign Minister Bert Koenders' (pictured) announcement that calls to boycott the State of Israel, ‘are protected by freedom of expression and freedom of assembly,’ as enshrined in the Dutch Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.” Samuels noted, “The Netherlands, under WWII German occupation, was the scene of the ‘Kaufen nicht bei Juden’ (‘Do not buy from Jews’) campaign, whereby the Nazis and their Dutch collaborators set the demonization of Jewish citizens along the road to Auschwitz. Now a Dutch official has, unashamedly, justified the same instrument of hate against the Jewish State as a ‘a human right’!'' The letter claimed, “The Arab League had effectively deactivated its 1948-founded, Damascus-based, ‘Boycott of Israel’ office as commercially unrealistic and a violation of the World Trade Organization in weakening the global fabric of free trade. Now, its new incarnation was the 'BDS' (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) campaign established by the Palestinian leadership of both Fatah and Hamas terror movements,” continuing… “Gorging on European tax-payer largesse, these leaders have created a movement to divert attention from their own corruption, which is more harmful to Palestinian breadwinners working with Israelis than to the Israeli economy.” Samuels described, “In Europe, including the Netherlands, uniformed BDS squads have brought terror to supermarkets, stripping kosher-product shelves, rushing past terrified cashiers to burn their loot in the open-air.” The Centre asked the Prime Minister, “Will it take Hitler Youth-style attacks on Jewish stores in Amsterdam, Paris or Berlin, for your Foreign Minister to admit that BDS hate-speech, resulting in violent hate-crime, is a ‘human right’ only for Fascists and terrorists?” “We urge you, Mr. Prime Minister, to undo his damage to the Netherlands by declaring BDS and other such forms of incitement as ‘unconstitutional’,” concluded Samuels. For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at 00 33 609 770 158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).