In the Dutch Mountains
In Holland, these days you will hear and read comments about Israel and the Jews that - unless my memory deceives me - you did not hear and read ten, fifteen years ago. I do not know if what is behind that is anti-Semitism ( old or new, indigenous or ‘imported’ ), anti-Zionism, an anonymity ( provided by the internet ) that did not exist or was not very common yet in the 1990s, the effect of 9/11 and Islamist terror, a false sense of solidarity with the Palestinians or a combination of all that. Still, in the Dutch online media which offer the possibility of providing feedback you will almost always encounter anti-Jewish verbal violence whenever a subject comes up that involves Israel or the Jews.
And I am not talking about ( one-sided, or balanced and totally justified, even welcome ) criticism of Israel here. It appears to me that in this context there is no real difference between Right and Left, even though in Dutch politics anti-Israel bias has more and more become a characteristic of the Left. A good example of the tone of anti-Jewish comments I just found on the website of the Dutch free daily De Pers, underneath an article that is titled “Israel remembers Holocaust”. I will translate the two first comments, even though they do not deserve that and should be ignored. Someone ‘named’ Tuurke, registered at the website since December 2007 and the writer of 540 posts since then, commented:
- Holocaust is a word that the Jews have appropriated unlawfully. As if Gypsies, gays and many more do not fall in that category. Typical “Jews’ trick”.
- From my mother I heard about the Jews. In the war a Jewish family had to leave (*). That is why they left the main household effects with neigbors. With one neigbor they left a box of with shoes. A few streets further down they also left a box with shoes. After the war, when those Jews did not come back (**), the box was checked more closely. In one box there were only left shoes, and a few streets there were only right shoes in that box. My mother always said after that: “…those are real ‘Jews’ tricks’ “.
(*) Notice the euphemism.
(**) You can almost hear Tuurke think: “Good riddance!”. Many if not most Dutch Jews who wrote or spoke about their return from the camps or from hiding mentioned neighbors who refused or were quite unwilling to return valuables, clothes and other effects that the Jews left with their neigbors before they went into hiding or were deported. The cynical term for these neighbors is “Bewarier”, a combinatie of the Dutch words for ‘to keep/save’ ( bewaren ) and ‘Aryan’ ( Arier ).
The hateful comments on the website of De Pers were removed by a moderator.
They shouldn’t have been removed, those comments. A person has a right to free speech, no matter how distasteful we think it is. It is only when it comes to light that people are faced with the true ugliness that lies within their own societies. Removal of that right, essentially slapping your hand upon someone’s mouth, will only serve to strengthen their resolve, and removes everyone else’s right to express indignation.
There is a lot of hate in the Netherlands, there is even more insensitivity, but the real question is this: why are the Netherlands and so many Dutch afraid to face it?
You are right, I don’t think the comments should have been removed, although I am not sure whether every online news item should have a feedback option. With some articles you can simply predict the responses, and those responses do often not add anything substantial to a sensible exchange of thoughts, they just are a means for bigots, fanatics ( in the case of Israel: pro and anti to the same extent ) and other frustrated people to express their views. There are other fora for such people to let off their steam. But true, the moment you offer the possibility of leaving comments, you should moderate them with the utmost restraint, only removing ( and taking action against ) comments that are somehow illegal or call for illegal acts. Of course, this is my common sense talking, I am not in the least a legal expert.
I used to live in Holland, and it was famous at the time for its tolerance. Most of the Dutch I knew were not happy about some of the slums, and recent immigrants. But I never heard any anti-Semitism, and most complaints of other nationalities were muted.
It has been 17 years since I left Holland. How has it changed in the last 17 years from your point of view?
My impressions of Holland as such are very general ( I visit the country once or twice a year, hardly ever for more than two weeks in a row ), and they are probably influenced by other people’s impressions that I read and hear about. So I cannot tell you really what exactly has changed. One thing that I should mention here is that several historians have suggested that the famous Dutch tolerance is more a matter of opportunism and a certain fear of confrontation than of truly accepting and respecting ‘the other’ as equal. This make sense and could explain certain phenomena in the Netherlands these days. But again, I basically am not a real insider anymore, more a concerned and very sympathetic outside observer and visitor.
As I mention, it could very well be that the main reason why I read and hear so much anti-Jewish and anti-Israel comments is that 10, 15 years ago those commentators did not have such sophisticated and anonymous channels to express their frustrations, hatred and anger. Of course Israel’s continued and continuing occupation of the Westbank, its actions and ( lack of a real ) policy towards the Palestinians, and America’s ME-policy ( or again, lack of it ) all make it easy for those who hate us to attack us verbally. Complex feelings of guilt towards both Dutch-Jewish Holocaust victims and the Palestinians, but also plain and simple, indigenous and Muslim or Islamist anti-Semitism, good Palestinian/Arab/Muslim PR and very bad Israeli PR play a role as well.
I must say that when my family and I spent five weeks in Holland during the Lebanon War, there was an enormous contrast between on one hand what I read in on-paper and on-line and saw and heard on television, and on the other hand the feedback and support that we received from tens of ‘ordinary’ Dutchmen and -women whenever someone wondered what exotic language we were talking and asked where we were from. That feedback was sympathetic and heart-warming, without any exception. It would be wrong to conclude anything from my experiences in those weeks, but I had a feeling that there is a difference between the sympathies of the average citizen and those that we read and hear online, on paper, on television and on the radio.