VVD Amsterdam-Zuid 🧡

I am deeply dismayed by the statement delivered today by Mayor Femke Halsema in the Amsterdam municipal council. Her words not only distort the reality of the current conflict but also disregard the suffering of Israeli victims and the context in which this war has unfolded. On October 7, 2023, Israel experienced the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 civilians were slaughtered in their homes, children were burned alive, women raped, and entire families executed by Hamas terrorists. Over 240 hostages, including babies and elderly, were dragged into Gaza. Israel did not choose this war. For the mayor of Amsterdam to mention that atrocity only in passing, while uncritically amplifying Hamas propaganda and unverified claims of “genocide” by Israel, is a profound moral failure. It is even more painful to hear such words spoken in a city with a Jewish history as deep and tragic as Amsterdam’s. Just months ago, in November, a pogrom took place in Amsterdam, extremist violence as confirmed by Dutch intelligence service AIVD. The opening of the Dutch National Holocaust Museum was stained by anti-Israel activists shouting obscenities against Holocaust survivors . Yet this mayor thinks she gets to lecture the State of Israel. To suggest that Israel is deliberately murdering civilians and starving children is not only false, it is a blood libel, one that echoes the darkest chapters of European history. Israel is in a fight against a genocidal terror regime that hides behind civilians and uses schools and hospitals as shields. The obsessive singling out of Israel, while omitting the atrocities of Hamas or the antisemitism that runs rampant in the streets, is unworthy of a mayor.