The scene on Aug. 12, 2025, after vandals struck at the Israeli embassy in The Hague. Photo: Israel Foreign Ministry
Law enforcement in The Hague has apprehended three suspects following vandalism at the Israeli embassy on Tuesday morning.
“This is what dangerous incitement and lies against Israel look like,” Israel’s foreign ministry said on X, alongside an image of the crime featuring splatters of blood-like red paint and a broken window. “This incitement against Israel has already claimed the lives of two workers of the Israeli Embassy in the US, and in the Netherlands itself, this resulted in a pogrom against Israelis just a few months ago. This incitement must be confronted with the full force of truth.”
The ministry was referring to how, in June, a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by a national Jewish organization. The suspect charged for the double murder, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Rodriguez stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
That incident came months after Israeli soccer fans were brutally assaulted in Amsterdam after watching a European League match. During the premeditated and coordinated violence on Nov. 7, 2024, the Israeli fans were chased with knives and sticks in several locations around the city, run over by cars, physically beaten, and some were forced by their attackers to say “Free Palestine” to avoid further assault. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”
Modi Ephraim, Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands, called this week’s crime a “cowardly act” and “yet another illustration of the dangerous consequences of rising hatred and incitement.”
Ephraim said that “diplomats must be able to carry out their work safely and unhindered at all times. The police have arrested suspects. We are confident that the Dutch authorities will take all necessary measures to prevent such attacks in the future.”
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) released a statement on X following the attack: “Make no mistake: this is an act of intimidation, the result of two years of incitement against Israel. We are left wondering: Where were the Dutch police? Where were the security forces tasked with protecting diplomats in The Hague? This grievous breach of security is unacceptable.”
Pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs said following the crime that “these vile actions must be universally condemned.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Global 100 survey of antisemitism levels around the world — updated Jan. 14 — the Netherlands is one of the least hateful countries with 8 percent of the population harboring elevated antisemitic views (agreeing with at least 6 common antisemitic stereotypes.) This places the Netherlands as the nation with the fourth lowest rate of antisemitism on the planet.
On Nov. 22, 2024, the Dutch government announced plans to increase security funding at Jewish institutions by €1.3 million ($1.5 million) annually, establish an antisemitism task force, and research the root causes of hate against Jews in order to develop “instruments to make young people and adults more resilient and that can lead to changes in attitudes and behavior.”
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Author: David Swindle
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