“Desk, shame. Blood on your hands,” an activist shouts through a megaphone on Saturday evening at Leidseplein in Amsterdam. Visitors to the Israeli film festival Seret in the Amsterdam Balie are shouted at by activists against the war in Gaza.
It is yet another Israeli-affiliated cultural gathering that has been protested against in recent weeks. Visitors to the Holocaust Museum were verbally abused last week, and the performance of Eurovision Song Contest winner Lenny Kuhr in Waalwijk was interrupted by activists.
“This is not demonstrating, this is intimidating,” thirteen of the fifteen parliamentary factions wrote last Thursday in a joint statement against Jew-hatred. “The safety and freedom of Jewish Dutch people are at stake.”
But where is the line? What is a legitimate protest against the war? When does it turn into anti-Semitism?
The demonstrators in front of the Bar do not feel addressed by the criticism. “We do not focus on individuals, but on institutions,” says José van Leeuwen (68), who works in a hospice. She emphasizes that many in the Netherlands do not understand the anger about the war in Gaza. She recalls the anger of the Dutch when Emperor Hirohito, who symbolized Japanese oppression in the Dutch East Indies, visited the Netherlands in 1971. “You should compare the feelings with that.” Then Wim Kan was one of the instigators of the protests and a bystander threw a stone through the window of the limousine that had to take the Emperor of Japan to Queen Juliana.
Israeli apartheid
She is holding a banner on the sidewalk, separated by two tram tracks and two cycle paths from the De Balie debate center. Text: This cultural event is sponsored by Israeli apartheid!
The appropriate distance is ordered by the police, explains Nicole Hollenberg, one of the organizers of the action. She is chairman of BDS Netherlands. The letters stand for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions.
“We just want to convey our message, the fact that De Balie offers space for films that are financed by an apartheid regime. Our protest was inspired by the boycott of South Africa at the time,” she says.
“This festival is not about politics, but about culture,” says Odelia Haroush, director of the film festival. She walked outside and stood on the elevated tram platform to peek at the protest from among the travelers. “You don't want culture cancel.” And besides, Haroush says later by telephone, the Israeli government sponsors “less than five percent” of the film festival's total budget. “It is one of the smallest sponsors.”
Cancel James Bond
Professor of Jewish studies Jessica Roitman of the Vrije Universiteit sees the protest as yet another example that everything to do with Israel is gradually being seen as bad. But that does not make the protests anti-Semitic, she emphasizes. “It becomes dangerous when being Jewish, being Israeli, or being in favor of the Israeli regime is lumped together, as happened with Lenny Kuhr. Or recently when X called for the next James Bond to be canceled because the actor is Jewish – not even Israeli!”
Roitman is not happy with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) strategy that the activists are choosing. “The BDS movement targets Israeli cultural and academic institutions because they are government funded. But almost all art and culture is financed by governments, including in the Netherlands. Cultural institutions in Israel are often very critical of Netanyahu. If you attack these types of institutions you stifle the progressive voice in the public debate in Israel.”
On Leidseplein, one of the filmgoers approaches the group aggressively and attacks the activists one by one, filming right in front of them with her iPhone. A heated discussion ensues with a man wearing a cap, in Hebrew. “This has nothing to do with anti-Semitism,” he says afterwards. His name is Jonathan Massey of Gate 48, an action group of Israelis living in the Netherlands who are agitating against the occupation of the Palestinian territories. “What division,” he points to his neighbor, “he is from Gaza, and we are taking joint action here.”
Flat promotion
Finnish-Palestinian writer and journalist Umayya Abu-Hanna, born in Haifa, is irritated by the provocative visitor. This is really about flat promotion of the Israeli government, she says while petting her labradoodle she brought with her. That's why she raises her voice. It is about this Fire Israelnot an innocent film festival, but a showcase for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cronies, that's why it's here.
“Total nonsense,” says festival director Haroush. “We also program films made jointly by Israelis and Palestinians. And we are also funded by organizations such as New Israel Fund who take a completely different position. The demonstrators conveniently forget that.” It New Israel Fund is a progressive NGO that fights for the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
According to Professor Roitman, Jews are asked again and again to prove that they are on the right side. “I also notice it in my private life,” she says. “I constantly have to justify myself. If I say that I am Jewish and Zionist, I am immediately suspicious. Last summer I demonstrated in Tel Aviv against Benjamin Netanyahu. I am also an American protesting against Donald Trump. But as an American I don't always have to justify myself about Trump, while as a Jew I am constantly asked to do so.”
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