Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam Sunday amid protests of Israel's killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.
In a statement, the museum acknowledged concerns about Herzog's attendance but said the Israeli official represented the homeland of Dutch Holocaust survivors, who emigrated to Israel. The museum also said the invitation had been extended to Herzog before the October 7 terror attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
The Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist group Erev Rav, organizing the protest with the Dutch Palestinian Community and Socialist International, said that while it honors the memory of Holocaust victims, it could not stand by while the war in Gaza continued.
The museum in Amsterdam showcases stories of some of the 102,000 Jews who were deported from the Netherlands and killed in Nazi camps. It also chronicles their structural persecution under the German World War II occupation before the deportations began.
Germany killed 6 million Jews during World War Two. Modern Israel was founded in 1948 as a safe haven for Jews.
The museum "gives a face and a voice to the Jewish victims of persecution in the Netherlands," Dutch King Willem-Alexander said in an address at the ceremony Sunday. It also "shows us the devastating consequences that antisemitism can have," he said, adding "that is why we must continue to be aware of how things began and how they went from bad to worse."
Earlier, Willem-Alexander and Herzog visited Amsterdam's famous Portuguese Synagogue.
Herzog hailed the Netherlands' initiative to create a new Holocaust Museum amid what he said was raising antisemitism around the world.
"At this pivotal moment in time, this institution sends a clear powerful statement," Herzog said. "Remember! Remember the horrors born of hatred, antisemitism, and racism, and never again allow them to flourish.”
Three-quarters of Dutch Jews were among the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis.
The Rights Forum, a pro-Palestinian Dutch organization, called Herzog's presence "a slap in the face of the Palestinians who can only helplessly watch how Israel murders their loved ones and destroys their land."
In a statement issued ahead of Sunday's opening, the Jewish Cultural Quarter, which runs the museum, said it is "profoundly concerned by the war and the consequences this conflict has had, first and foremost for the citizens of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank."
The museum is housed in a former teacher training college that was used as a covert escape route to help some 600 Jewish children to escape from the Nazis.
Last week, Nicaragua filed an application with the International Court of Justice to join South Africa in accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians.
Some of Herzog's remarks have been cited by South Africa in its lawsuit. He previously said that not only militants but "an entire nation" was responsible for the Oct.
7 attack on Israel and that Israel will fight "until we break their backbone."
Israel strongly rejected allegations by South Africa in the court case that the military campaign in Gaza breaches the Genocide Convention.
Herzog was among the Israeli leaders cited in an order issued in January by the top United Nations court, urging Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. He accused the International Court of Justice of misrepresenting his comments in the ruling.
"I was disgusted by the way they twisted my words, using very, very partial and fragmented quotes, with the intention of supporting an unfounded legal contention," he said, days after the ruling.
The Gaza war was triggered by the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage.
Gaza's health ministry said Saturday at least 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 wounded in Israel's retaliatory offensive.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
