Dutch PM urges Jews to stay amid rising antisemitism: ‘The Netherlands is our shared home’

According to Dutch authorities, 867 antisemitic incidents were registered in 2025, a figure that remains deeply troubling and virtually unchanged from the 880 cases recorded the previous year.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten appealed to Jews considering leaving the Netherlands amid rising antisemitism to remain in the country, insisting that Jewish life must have a visible and secure future in Dutch society.

During a Kristallnacht commemoration ceremony in Amsterdam, marking the Nazi-led pogrom of November 1938 in which Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were attacked across Germany and Austria, Jetten acknowledged the growing fears within the Dutch Jewish community, condemning the growing wave of threats targeting Jewish institutions across the country.

“I want to urge those considering leaving: Do not give in to fear,” the Dutch leader said in his speech. “Because this is your home—the Netherlands is our shared home.”

Jetten sought to reassure Dutch Jews that they remain an integral part of the country, pointing to increased funding for security at Jewish institutions plus efforts to strengthen communal life, calling it “deeply saddening” that families are questioning whether their children have a future in the country.

For many Jews and Israelis in the Netherlands, rising hostility has turned everyday expressions of identity into a source of concern, prompting some to hide Jewish symbols, avoid speaking Hebrew in public, or think twice before openly identifying themselves as Jewish.

During his speech, Jetten reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring Jewish life has a visible place in Dutch society, revealing that he had affixed a mezuzah—gifted to him by Rabbi Yanki Jacobs, director of Chabad on Campus Netherlands—to the doorframe of his official residence because he wants “to be prime minister of a country where Jewish life is visible.”

“Apparently, fewer and fewer people are affixing the traditional mezuzah to their doorposts for fear of negative reactions,” he said, referring to the small case containing a Jewish prayer traditionally attached to the doorframe of a Jewish home.

Jetten’s remarks come amid increasingly strained ties between the Netherlands and Israel, which have reached one of their lowest points in decades as tensions have mounted in the aftermath of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In one of the latest points of friction between the two countries, Israel recently ordered Dutch diplomats operating in Ramallah to return their Israeli-issued diplomatic credentials, in retaliation for the Netherlands’ newly imposed ban on goods from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria that took effect in September.

At the time, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced that the diplomatic privileges and immunities granted to the Dutch diplomats would be revoked if they failed to return their credentials within the allotted time.

The Israeli government announced further punitive actions against the Netherlands earlier this year, removing the Dutch delegation from the US-led Gaza coordination mission in Israel over what Jerusalem described as a series of “anti-Israel measures.”

The Dutch sanctions, which took effect on Sept. 22, are among the most far-reaching measures yet restricting trade with Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, as international efforts to boycott the Jewish state continue to grow.

The law is broader than similar measures adopted elsewhere, banning goods not only from Israeli settlements beyond the Green Line but also from the Golan Heights bordering Syria to the north.

The Dutch government has also come under mounting criticism from Israeli officials and Jewish leaders, who accuse it of failing to adequately confront the growing wave of anti-Jewish hatred and antisemitic violence targeting the country’s Jewish community.

Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, the Netherlands has seen a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents over the last three years, in the wake of the Oct. 7 atrocities.

According to Dutch authorities, 867 antisemitic incidents were registered in 2025, a figure that remains deeply troubling and virtually unchanged from the 880 cases recorded the previous year.

Even though Jews make up less than 0.3 percent of the Dutch population, anti-Jewish hate crimes account for 26 percent of all discrimination cases.

AntisemitismNetherlands