Double standard

Peter Breedveld

Last fall the PVV, a Dutch anti-immigrant party currently working with a range of far-right, anti-Semitic parties in the European parliament, organized a demonstration at which the flag of the Dutch Nazi party NSB was waved and people gave the Nazi-salute. Many representatives of the extreme right movement were present.

Nothing much was made of it in the press. The fact that MP’s representing the PVV had a pin in the shape of said NSB flag attached to their lapels raised some eyebrows, but the incident was soon forgotten.

Anti-Semitic affair

But last Saturday some people carried a sign equaling the Israeli flag to the swastika at a rally against the Israeli attack on Gaza and ever since the media, politicians and lobby clubs have been spitting fire. The individuals carrying the signs were immediately summoned by the police to put them away, but to no avail. The whole demonstration with thousands of partakers is now being dismissed as an anti-Semitic affair.

Some media maintain that ‘Nazi flags’ and flags of ‘terrorist organisations’ were carried but that is an outright lie. It appears some people carried a black flag with the shahada written in Arabic, the Islamic profession of faith in God and the prophet Muhammad.

Turning a blind eye

One of the biggest loudmouths in affairs like these is Esther Voet, chairwoman of CIDI, the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel. Voet is always amongst the first ones to declare a demonstration anti-Semitic, whether the demonstration is against racism, like last March, or against Israel’s politics regarding the occupied territories. Voet enjoys accusing people of anti-Semitism, especially when they are of Moroccan or Turkish descent, as many immigrants in Holland are. CIDI flirted with the PVV for a long time, until the PVV’s affiliation with political parties like the French Front National and the Austrian FPÖ gave Voet no other choice than to condemn its cooperation with certified anti-Semites.

But still Voet has a habit of turning a blind eye to the blunt anti-Semitism of white, rightwing conservatives. She is mainly interested in anti-Semitism in Islamic circles and will not hesitate to falsify evidence to make someone look anti-Semitic. She tried doing so by mutilating a tweet by Dutch-Moroccan historian Nadia Bouras, for instance.

True colors

Last Saturday she tried to implicate Dutch-Moroccan Fatima Elatik, a retired politician, in the swastika hassle at the demonstration. Elatik, who as administrator of the city of Amsterdam made many endeavours in the struggle against anti-Semitism and promoted mutual understanding between Jews and other minorities in her city, put a photograph of herself at the demonstration on Facebook and was immediately accused of anti-Semitism by Voet. Elatik was showing her ‘true colors’, Voet tweeted. To the populist De Telegraaf, The Netherlands’ biggest newspaper, Voet said about Elatik that ‘The Jewish community is losing all its reasonable interlocutors.’

But Elatik knew nothing about any Nazi flag and was just there to show her solidarity with the victims of the Israeli bombs. Voets accusations, which have been picked up by the Israeli press, have deeply hurt Elatik and she threatens to write an exposé about the ’true colors’ of CIDI.

Muslim background

According to Elatik, CIDI handles a double standard under the chairwomanship of Esther Voet who succeeded former chairman Ronny Naftaniel (who, it must be said, started to accuse Elatik even sooner than Voet did). ‘Only politicians with a Muslim background have to answer for the misbehavior of others, she tweeted. ‘Carrying Nazi flags at a PVV demonstration is apparently no problem.’

In the meantime supporters of Voet and the Israeli cause revel in the excessive use of Nazi comparisons and demonizations without Voet or anyone else from CIDI condemning this. Someone on Twitter, mentioning Voet, called Elatik a cancer.

Racist blogger

Voet has never distanced herself from the gross abuse of her supporters. On the contrary, she uses them to spread hate against anyone criticizing Israel or CIDI. When one of her supporters, a racist blogger who advocated genocide on Afghan Muslims and admired Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik (who killed eighty children in 2011 to make his point about the Islamization of Europe) died in a traffic accident last summer, Voet deplored the loss his death meant for the debate in Holland.

I find it pretty amazing that CIDI, which was a very respectable lobby organization for Israel, chose to appoint someone like Voet as its chairwoman. If anyone is responsible for CIDI losing its reasonable interlocutors, I would say it’s Voet with her belligerent, bullying, ruthless streetfighter approach.

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