I studied in Amsterdam — the antisemitic violence there doesn’t surprise me
A graduate of the University of Amsterdam recalls an atmosphere of closed-mindedness and vitriol
Debris is removed from the street following overnight riots in Amsterdam. Photo by Getty Images
When the news broke one day before the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht that Jews were being hunted and beaten on the streets of Amsterdam, I wasn’t surprised.
I studied at the University of Amsterdam from 2018 to 2022, and during my time there I witnessed many antisemitic incidents. Most were veiled as anti-Israel criticism and they were thankfully not of a physical nature, but they left a lasting impression on me.
I learned to filter out the stereotypical remarks my fellow students made about Jews being greedy and controlling global financial institutions, but two incidents still trouble me deeply.
Since I was a political science student, it was inevitable and essential that the Israel-Palestine conflict would be discussed in my classes.
In December 2018, the university’s student association, Machiavelli, hosted a lecture by Israeli journalist David Sheen in collaboration with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. The event was titled “Gaslight unto the Nations: Israel + Palestine under Trump and Netanyahu.”
The event flyer promised a Q&A session and a chance to debate following the lecture, and two of my classmates and I were eager to engage in meaningful discourse.
At the time, we were two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, a politically turbulent period. Trump had recently recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and I hoped the lecture would offer a nuanced, informative perspective, even if it didn’t align with my views.
Within 20 minutes, it became painfully clear that the lecture would not be a balanced political analysis. Instead, what I witnessed was an antisemitic tirade, in which Sheen told the audience that Jews should stop waiting for their messiah and instead accept Adolf Hitler as their messiah, claiming that without Hitler and the Holocaust, Israel would never have been established. He went so far as to say that Hitler had done the Jews a favor.
During the Q&A session, my friends and I respectfully requested that Sheen clarify his statements, but he refused to do so, and asked the moderator to take the microphone away from us.
The room quickly grew hostile. Other attendees started filming us, and soon, the verbal harassment began, with “F-you’s” directed at us. We were kicked out of the room; on my way out, someone in the audience told me I should be ashamed to be a Jew.
We immediately lodged complaints with the student association that organized the event and the university’s dean. But we got nowhere. The University of Amsterdam told us that everything Sheen said was protected free speech. Similarly, our concerns about our safety and the fact that we had been filmed were dismissed.
Towards the end of my time at the university, I was preparing to write my bachelor’s thesis about the UN’s biased treatment of Israel. My intention was to perform a quantitative and qualitative comparison of UN Human Rights Council resolutions on Syria and Israel.
When I presented my idea to one of my tutors, he immediately told me I might encounter issues and pushback because of my topic. He was right. Two professors declined to supervise me because they said the topic was too biased. When I finally found a professor willing to supervise me, my tutor told me I was lucky to find anyone at all.
After analyzing hundreds of UN Human Rights Council resolutions against Syria and Israel by looking at the specific language used to condemn the countries’ actions I confirmed my suspicions that the UN Human Rights Council does indeed treat Israel in a biased way. The council used the same harsh language to condemn minor actions by Israel as it did to denounce chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Resolutions about Israel often framed it as the sole aggressor, while those addressing Syria acknowledged the nuanced context of the conflict.
The process of writing the thesis and getting it accepted in the first place, pushed me to dig deeper, think critically, and hold my ground without relying solely on passion and emotions. In the end, it taught me that standing firm in what you believe doesn’t mean ignoring other perspectives but facing them head on and if you really believe in something you can make it happen.
Thinking back on my time in Amsterdam, it has become clear to me that I encountered more overt hostility against Jews and Israel than anywhere else I’ve lived.
And I grew up in Germany.
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