MPs back making anti-Semitism a factor in residency permits

 

MPs back making anti-Semitism a factor in residency permits

January 25, 2024

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/01/mps-back-making-anti-semitism-a-factor-in-residency-permits/

 

A majority of MPs have voted in favour of a motion drawn up by the fundamentalist Protestant SGP which calls on the government to take anti-Semitism into account in determining if people should be given residency permits.

 

The motion notes that anti-Semitism “is an evil that must also be repressed and vigorously combated in the Netherlands” and points out that in Germany, the law makes it possible to deport foreign nationals who are anti-Semitic and to stop them from becoming German.

 

The Dutch motion calls on the government to look into how anti-Semitism can be used as grounds for the refusal or withdrawal of permanent and temporary residency permits and applications for naturalisation.

 

The motion was co-signed by VVD, NSC and BBB – three of the four parties currently in talks on forming a new government. The 37 MPs from the far-right PVV also voted in favour.

 

During the debate on the motion last week, SGP parliamentarian Diederik van Dijk refered to the rise in anti-Semitism in the Netherlands since the Hamas Israel war began, such as the display of Hamas flags and anti-Semitic chants.

 

The aim of the motion, he said, is to ensure that anti-Semitism is given more weight in the decision-making process around applications for residency permits and Dutch nationality.

 

Asked to justify the motion with numbers, Van Dijk said “It is a unfortunately known fact that the evil of anti-Semitism is deeply ingrained in people from Arabic and Islamic countries.”

 

Research by the Anne Frank foundation last year found that secondary school teachers are more often confronted with anti-Semitism in the classroom than they were 10 years ago.

 

Most of the incidents involved swearing and abusive language – often football related – that was not directed at specific individuals, the foundation said. At the same time, teachers were more likely to be confronted with anti-Islam comments (65%) and comments about sexual minorities (82%), the survey, which did not go into these issues in detail, showed.

 

Youngsters with a ‘western’ background were responsible for 80% of the incidents, particularly in relation to football, which accounted for 40% of the total. The supporters of Amsterdam club Ajax are known as ‘Jews’, despite the club’s efforts to eradicate the nickname.