Amsterdam – A Dutch Protestant church sparked outrage after it released a report in which it drew a comparison between Israeli policy toward the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Nazi regime’s treatment of Jews.
The report was compiled by members of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) following their visit to the West Bank last November.
“When we visited Yad Vashem Museum, we saw evidence for the unmatched horrors of the Holocaust and the sign that said ‘No Jews allowed’ reminded us of what we’ve seen and heard in the past few days from Palestinian Christians. The saying ‘Never again’ echoed in our minds,” the authors said in the report.
The report opened with an image of Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl that fled from Nazi persecution to the Netherlands, to instill the impression that the treatment of the diarist by the Nazis was similar to Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinian population in the West Bank.
Binyomin Jacobs, the chief rabbi of the Netherlands, said that the PKN is planning to meet in several weeks’ time to examine the relations between the organization and the State of Israel based on the findings of the report.
The Jewish community in the Netherlands has been rocked by the report, causing an umbrella organization of the country’s Jewish communities to issue a statement expressing their shock by the comparison.
According to Rabbi Jacobs, “millions of Dutch Christians follow the PKN. The comparison between the systematic termination of Jews in the Holocaust and the State of Israel is unacceptable. It might encourage Dutch citizens to harm Jews. It’s an outright antisemitic report.”
Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Modi Ephraim expressed his dismay at the report, adding “we’re seeing an alarming rise in antisemitism”.
