The Netherlands confronts Israel while hiding from its own Jewish history - opinion

The Netherlands has imposed a law making it a crime to buy or sell Israeli goods produced beyond the 1967 armistice line, punishable by up to six years in prison. Customs officers at Schiphol Airport are said to be searching luggage from Tel Aviv for wine and dates. The government claims it is meeting its international law obligations.

However, it is the only country in the world to have such a criminal statute for a disputed territory, Israel. The Netherlands has a unique history regarding Jewish people, with 102,000 of the 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands murdered during the Holocaust. After the war, many Dutch individuals were accused of collaborating with the Nazis, making up nearly 5% of the wartime population.

The Dutch Nazi party had over 75,000 active members during World War 2, and the country's machinery of persecution was Dutch, with the municipal registry providing Jewish addresses and local police carrying out raids. The Frank family, who were Jewish, were discovered and sent to concentration camps through Dutch civilians forming a unit to collect bounties for every Jew in hiding turned in.

The Dutch government apologized for the treatment of its Jews in 2020. Despite this history, the Netherlands now treats the Jews living in the country differently, opening a National Holocaust Museum and allowing Jews and their supporters to gather and mourn victims in public spaces while protesters harass them. A Jew caught beating another Jew on an Amsterdam street faces six months in prison, while a Dutch Jew bringing back wine from Israel can face six years in prison, reflecting the country's moral ranking of offenses for Israel alone.