TEL AVIV – A Muslim city councilman in the Hague recently called Israeli high school students visiting the Dutch parliament “future Zionist terrorists, occupiers and those who murder children.”
Abdoe Khoulani, a member of the Islamist Party of Unity, posted his anti-Semitic vitriol on Facebook last week, the Center for Information and Documentation of Israel (CIDI) reported.
Around 30 teenagers from the Hen School for Young Ambassadors visited the Netherlands on a trip organized by the Israeli Center for Young Leaders (ICYL) in order to forge ties with their Dutch peers.
One of the students on the trip told the Ynet news site, “It is disappointing to discover that when we, Israel’s youth, come as a delegation without political interests to promote friendly relations with Dutch youth, we encounter a sad barrier of antisemitism and hatred of Israel.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Aviv Shir-On reportedly sent a damning letter to the mayor of the Hague, Pauline Krikke, calling the incident “not just a scandal” but “absolutely unacceptable.”
“These words [Khoulani’s] are nothing but anti-Israel incitement that can lead to violence that we have unfortunately seen in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Manchester and London,” Shir-On wrote.
According to Ynet, Krikke has so far refused to respond, even though this is not the first time Khoulani has made outrageous statements. In 2014, the councilman said, “Long live the Islamic State! If Allah wills it, we will go to Baghdad to reckon with the scum there.”
Last week, the Muslim councilman hurled insults at a woman who criticized his anti-Israel rhetoric, calling her a “bitch … retarded dumb broad [with] an ugly, ugly white face.”
On Thursday, the CIDI youth demonstrated against Khoulani’s remarks outside the Hague city hall under the slogan, “Stop hate at this council.” ICYL members waved Israeli flags and later wrote on Facebook that the students’ message was “hate will not prevail, love will lead the way.”