Cabinet sets aside extra money to protect Jewish buildings

Prime Minister Rob Jetten said on Monday evening that "the lesson of history is that violence against Jews is never far away". He spoke at the national commemoration of Kristallnacht in the Portugese Synagoge in Amsterdam, 88 years after the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, when synagogues in Germany and Austria were set on fire and Jewish shops and homes were destroyed and looted.

Why it matters

• The cabinet has set aside extra money to secure Jewish buildings and institutions.
• The cabinet wants to strengthen and support Jewish life at national level, in consultation with the Jewish community and the National Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism.

Jetten said anti-Jewish feelings are being stirred up again in the Netherlands by social division. "We see and hear it in public debate and on social media, in antisemitic remarks that increasingly reach us unfiltered, in reports of events and gatherings cancelled out of fear," he said. He called antisemitism "a smouldering peat fire".

"There is no excuse whatsoever for threats and violence against synagogues, Jewish schools and restaurants, or Jewish Dutch people who do not want to hide their identity," he said. To Jewish Dutch people considering leaving the country, he said: "Don't give in to it. Because this is your home."

Jetten said the cabinet wants to strengthen and support Jewish life at national level, in consultation with the Jewish community and the National Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism.

The commemoration took place under heavy security, with armed marechaussees (military police) guarding the synagogue.

Chanan Hertzberger, chair of the Centraal Joods Overleg (the Jewish community's umbrella body), welcomed Jetten's presence. "The prime minister's presence shows that the cabinet is engaged with the Jewish community," he said. He also thanked Jetten for not giving in to the demands of the organisers of Sunday's Rode Lijn demonstration: a full arms embargo and an end to all military cooperation.