Dutch Muslims Hold More Negative Views of Jews
The Dutch government postponed indefinitely the release of a survey suggesting that anti-Semitism is more prevalent among Muslim youths than Christian ones.
The Verwey Jonker Institute submitted the synopsis for its government-commissioned report on anti-Semitism among youths last month for publication to the Dutch Social Affairs ministry, which has kept is under wraps past the May deadline and ordered a review of the data, De Telegraaf daily reported Monday.
De Telegraaf nonetheless reviewed a copy of the synopsis, which said that 12 percent of Muslim respondents expressed a “not positive” view of Dutch Jews compared to only two percent among Christian respondents.
The Telegraaf report did not say how many youths were questioned in the survey by the Verwey Jonker Institute, which is among the country’s leading authorities on conducting scientific research on social issues.
Asked about Jews in Israel, 40 percent of Muslim respondents expressed a “not positive” view compared to six percent among Christians, 10 percent among members of other faiths and eight percent among atheists.
Among Muslim respondents, Zionists came out as least liked, with 66 percent expressing a “not positive” view compared to six percent among Christians.
Muslims of Turkish descent expressed more negative views of Jews than their Moroccan peers. The same applied to males compared to females, the report said.
The State of Israel invoked the least favorable reactions, with 13 percent of Christians expressing negative feelings and 62 percent of Muslims. Of the two remaining categories, 19 and 22 percent respectively said they did not have a positive view of the Jewish state.
Asked by De Telegraaf why the report has not been released, a ministry spokesperson said the ministry needs “clarification, for example on how to explain some results.” The ministry declined to elaborate, De Telegraaf reported.
The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, a watchdog on anti-Semitism, defended the government’s decision to withhold the report’s release citing “the risk that respondents conflated some of the terms they were asked about.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 3
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 4
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Israel just threw another wrench in the peace process — and possibly doomed the last hostages
-
Culture In the new Fantastic Four trailer, a glimpse of Yancy Street’s Yiddishkeit
-
Fast Forward El Salvador’s president, Trump’s new deportation partner, has a strange history with Jews and Israel
-
Fast Forward Report: Trump scuttled Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.