Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to the Netherlands’ first National Holocaust Museum on its opening on Sunday was met by a demonstration protesting the bloodshed in Gaza.
The museum’s opening was attended by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as well as King Willem-Alexander, who gave a speech in Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue before the museum visit on the need to prevent antisemitism.
Herzog’s invitation to the ceremony was opposed by protesters critical of the Israeli government’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attack by Hamas.
Dutch newspaper NRC put the number of protesters at “at least a thousand” — with some of them part of a pro-Israel counter-demonstration. According to NRC, the police cordoned off several streets to maintain order.
The new museum is located on the site of a former nursery school which helped smuggle hundreds of Jewish children to safety during the German occupation of the country in World War II.
