An anti-Israel activist was arrested in Amsterdam after spray-painting the words “Never again is now” on the Nationaal Monument op de Dam, the city’s central World War II memorial, ahead of a planned demonstration on Saturday. Police confirmed the arrest on Monday, noting the man was interrogated and then released, with his case referred to the Public Prosecution Service for further action, reports The Jerusalem Post.
The desecration provoked outrage, given the memorial’s role as a national site of remembrance for Dutch victims of the Second World War, including the 100,000 Jews deported and murdered during the Holocaust. By hijacking the Holocaust-associated slogan “Never again” and linking it to anti-Israel protests, the act has been widely condemned as a form of Holocaust distortion — a recognised manifestation of antisemitism.
Party for Freedom chairman Geert Wilders strongly criticised both the vandalism and the authorities’ handling of the case. He described the protesters as “pro-Hamas thugs” and called for their arrest and deportation. Wilders also expressed anger that the vandal was released so quickly despite defacing a site of profound national and Jewish significance.
The vandalism occurred just hours before a coalition of activist groups staged a march in Amsterdam against Israel’s actions in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. On social media, the group Internationale Socialisten accused Israel of “murdering journalists, using hunger as a weapon, and pushing for the full annexation of Gaza.” Protesters marched through the city waving Palestinian flags, banging pots, and carrying blood-stained press flak jackets. In a further symbolic act, they placed coffins near the national monument, claiming to represent journalists killed in the conflict.
“Never again” has long been used in Holocaust education campaigns to warn against denial and to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. Its appropriation of a Holocaust memorial in the service of anti-Israel activism has been denounced by Jewish community leaders as a deliberate trivialisation of the Holocaust, exploiting Jewish suffering to attack the Jewish state.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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