Government allocates 350,000 euros to support Jewish students and staff

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Netherlands, according to a report published earlier this year by the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. “Over the past few years, Jews have felt increasingly unsafe in our society,” the authors wrote.

The report also addressed pro-Palestinian demonstrations staged in higher education institutions, which are sometimes accompanied by anti-Semitic slogans. Posters belonging to Jewish student societies are being defaced, for instance, and Jewish students are being called child murderers or damned zionists. This situation has led some students and staff to conceal the fact that they are Jewish.

The Ministry of Education is asking educational institutions to actively support Jewish students and staff and “take action against individuals or circumstances that create an unsafe environment for them to work and learn."

Educational institutions already have a budget to address social safety. Aside from that, the Dutch government intends to allocate an additional 350,000 euros to support initiatives that strengthen “the social infrastructure of Jewish students and staff”.

The current Minister of Education, Rianne Letschert, was a member of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism until she left the presidency of Maastricht University to serve as an informateur. “I was moved when I talked to students who no longer dare to show their identity on campus,” she told the House of Representatives on Wednesday.