Dutch House of Reps votes to close mosques that preach destruction of Jews, Israel

The Dutch House of Representatives voted in favor of a motion calling to close mosques that preach the destruction of Israel, the House revealed on Tuesday.

The plenary comes amid significant debate among Dutch officials and lawmakers following the violent attacks on Israelis in Amsterdam earlier this month. 

The motion, called “The closure of Salafist mosques and institutions that preach the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel,” passed 91 to 58.

Brought about by Caroline van der Plas, Geert Wilders, and Claudia van Zanten, the text states that “given that antisemitism and incitement to antisemitism are increasing, and this has led to a Jew-hunt, [the resolution] calls on the government to close Salafist mosques and institutions that propagate the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel."

Van der Plas wrote on X "With this, we take a solid step in the fight against antisemitism and for the protection of the Jewish community."

Wilders called the vote "historical," and van Zanten said she was "very happy that our motion to close mosques that preach hate and incite violence has been adopted."

Several other motions relating to antisemitism and Jews were also passed, including promoting inclusion of organizations that propagate the destruction of the Israeli people and the State of Israel on the national sanctions list for terrorism; enforcing the compliance of social media accounts with over 500,000 followers to the Media Act; deploying additional police officers and more funding for Jewish memorial sites, such as the Westerbork concentration camp; covering additional costs relating to Jewish community security; giving police more access to undercover investigations of Telegram groups; promoting the banning of Samidoun and PFLP as soon as possible and; tightening the assessment framework for taxi drivers’ certificates of conduct who are guilty of antisemitism.

The House also passed a motion to create a proposal to punish antisemitism more severely and rejected MP Stephan van Baarle’s motion to ban Israeli soccer teams from European competitions.