Dutch Jews protest Israel's Herzog at Holocaust Museum opening in Amsterdam

The Dutch Jewish community protested against Israeli President Isaac Herzog's attendance at the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza.

Protesters were chanting "Never again is now" and "Ceasefire now" at a square close to the museum while holding Palestinian flags and signs that said, "Jews against genocide" and "The grandchild of a holocaust survivor says: Stop Gaza Holocaust".

Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist organisation Erev Rave, which organised the protest with the Dutch Palestinian Community and Socialists International, said that while it honours the memory of Holocaust victims, it could not stand by while the war in Gaza continued.

The museum in Amsterdam tells the stories of some of the 102,000 Jews who were deported from the Netherlands and murdered in Nazi camps, as well as the history of their structural persecution under German World War II occupation before the deportations began.

“For us Jews, these museums are part of our history, of our past,” said Joana Cavaco, an anti-war activist with the Erev Rav Jewish collective, addressing the crowd ahead of the ceremony.



She added: “How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalise genocide today?”

Palestinian health officials in Gaza say nearly 31,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive there on October 7.

Human rights group Amnesty International put up detour signs around the museum to direct Herzog to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

Some of Herzog's remarks have been cited by South Africa in its International Court of Justice lawsuit against Israel. He has said that not only the Hamas group but "an entire nation" was responsible for the Oct. 7 attack and that Israel will fight "until we break their backbone".

The museum told the media that it had invited Herzog before Israel's offensive in Gaza.