CIDI registered a total of 183 antisemitic incidents in 2021, an increase of 36% compared to 2020 and slightly higher than the previous peak in 2019.
According to CIDI director Hanna Luden, the figures show that the trend increase in the number of antisemitic incidents continues. It is worrying that an increasing number of incidents are taking place in schools throughout the country, from Alkmaar to Dordrecht and from the Randstad to Limburg. It almost always concerns the bullying behavior of fellow students towards children of Jewish descent. Luden: “These are heartbreaking stories of children who wonder ‘why are we so hated?’ It is painful that sometimes children are confronted with their Jewish identity in this way for the first time.” CIDI notes that although the school management generally takes action against these incidents, this sometimes happens too late and with too little conviction.
Also in 2021, spikes in antisemitic incidents mainly occurred amid rising tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. It illustrates that this goes beyond criticism of the policies of the State of Israel. Dutch Jews are held responsible for actions by the Israeli government. This has a strong influence on feelings of insecurity among Jewish Dutch people and leads to a reluctance to reveal their identity in public, at work and elsewhere.
CIDI has been warning for years that the tensions in the Middle East are resulting in an increase in the number of antisemitic expressions and, moreover, are sneakily legitimizing these kinds of expressions. That is why CIDI finds the choice of political parties such as BIJ1 and DENK not to participate in initiatives to protect the Dutch Jewish community against antisemitism, incomprehensible and worrying. The parties are thus sending the wrong signal to their supporters.
Online antisemitism falls outside the scope of this CIDI Monitor. The amount of online data is enormous, and requires a different approach. A study by the University of Utrecht into antisemitism will soon be published online.
CIDI makes several recommendations to tackle the persistent problem of antisemitism more effectively. For example, in addition to education about the Second World War and the Holocaust, the history of antisemitism should also be included in the educational curriculum. In addition, the police should be given more resources and powers to detect and prosecute cases of discrimination and office holders should be educated on the subject. Measures also need to be taken to tackle online hate speech in general and antisemitism in particular, and more research is needed into which anti-discrimination policies work best and what is needed to achieve them.
