‘I’ve lost count,’ says Amsterdam kosher restaurant owner after latest anti-Semitic vandalism

“There are many restaurants owned by different nationalities along this street, but we are the only one subjected to these kinds of incidents,” said owner Daniel Bar-On.

By The Algemeiner

The owner of a kosher restaurant in Amsterdam said this week that he has lost count of the times his establishment had been vandalized in recent years after anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on its windows.

An anti-Semitic slogan was scrawled onto the window of the HaCarmel eatery in the Dutch capital. The restaurant’s owner, Daniel Bar-On, told local news outlets that he could no longer keep track of the number of attacks on his property by antisemites.

“I’ve lost count,” Bar-On said. “There are many restaurants owned by different nationalities along this street, but we are the only one subjected to these kinds of incidents.”

Last year, the restaurant was the target of a second attack by the same Syrian migrant after he was found by a judge to have diminished responsibility for his first attack.

The suspect was arrested at the scene and was quickly discovered to be the same man who smashed a window in 2017, stole an Israeli flag, and vandalized the restaurant with eggs and mayonnaise.

Previous violent acts have included a fake bomb and graffiti.

Meanwhile, the local council in the port city of Rotterdam has pledged to step up its fight against anti-Semitism.

More camera surveillance and more police patrols will be placed at the city’s Jewish institutions following the vandalism of a Jewish cemetery last month.

“The continuing hatred of the Jewish community is shocking,” local councilor Tanya Hoogwerf said in a media interview. “The destruction of this final resting place of Jewish people is one in a series of incidents in our country.”

Hoogwerf added that “for years, politicians have been falling over themselves to speak out against it, while no effective measures have been taken.”

Amsterdamanti-SemitismVandalism