Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Dutch Anti-Islam Pol Calls ‘Muslim Ban’ Critics ‘Hypocrites’

AMSTERDAM (JTA) – Citing Arab countries’ bans on allowing in Israelis, the Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders called critics of the U.S. visa ban “hypocrites.”

Wilders, whose rightist Party for Freedom has been leading in five major polls conducted this month ahead of the March general elections, on Sunday made the assertion about President Donald Trump’s 90-day suspension of allowing in most travelers from seven predominantly-Muslim countries, including Iran.

Posting on Twitter a screen image of a table from Wikipedia on 16 countries that allegedly do not allow in holders of Israeli passports, Wilders wrote: “So where were the protests and demonstrations of the left? #hypocrisy.”

So where were the protests and demonstrations of the left? #hypocrisy pic.twitter.com/sBzDuukz9D

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) January 29, 2017

Of the 16 countries listed — all of them predominantly-Muslim — 11 are Arab states. Of those, six are countries classified by Israel as enemy states where citizens of the Jewish State are legally prohibited from entering according to Israeli law. Israel does not exclude granting a visa to any applicants solely on the basis of their nationality, according to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Wilders, who in his youth lived for two years on an Israeli moshav in the Jordan Valley, has called Israel “a place where I feel home” and said it was “close to his heart.” He also has called Israel a “canary in the coalmine” and “the West’s first line of defense against Islam,” during his many visits to the Jewish state. He has repeatedly said he argues for “Judeo-Christian values,” which he said are threatened by Islam in the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Last month a Dutch court convicted Wilders of incitement to discrimination for promising during a speech three years ago to make sure the Netherlands has fewer Moroccans. Wilders was acquitted in 2011 of hate-incitement charges in connection with a short video in which he inveighed against Islam, a religion he has called “evil and fascist.”

Though it has the support of some Dutch Jews, the Party for Freedom has angered many of them with its support of a ban on ritual slaughter and for teaming up with other far-right groups, including France’s National Front.

 

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.