A Dutch Holocaust researcher, Amanda Kluveld, is facing serious threats and intimidation after standing up for Jewish students at Maastricht University, where she is now at risk of losing her job, she told JNS.
Kluveld, a longtime critic of on-campus anti-Israel groups, told JNS in an interview that her attempt to film an antisemitic protest outside a classroom has apparently led to a concerted effort to push her out.
“It happened when I arrived at work. I teach in a designated classroom and am also forced to park in a specific parking spot for my safety,” she said of the May 13 incident. Upon leaving her vehicle, Kluveld said she ran into a group of activists chanting anti-Jewish slogans, calling for Zionists to be removed from campus and comparing them to Nazis.
Determined to document the event, which the researcher said involved sirens, drums and a megaphone, violating university rules prohibiting the disruption of educational activities, Kluveld began filming the rally.
However, when Kluveld recorded the scene, the institute’s integral safety coordinator approached her alongside a demonstrator who demanded she immediately stop filming and delete the footage from her phone.
Kluveld refused, telling the activist to “stop this kind of discrimination,” she recalled in the conversation with JNS. The situation escalated as faculty members, including the dean and director, pressured her to comply with the demand, accusing her of exacerbating tensions.
“They also started chanting at me through that megaphone, coming very close to me, like 20 centimeters [eight inches] away. And they had a flag, poking me with it, letting it touch my head,” she said, adding: “But I simply didn’t leave and stood my ground.”
“I said no; I don’t negotiate with terrorists, because that’s blackmail, and you shouldn’t allow that—before you know it, they’ll ask me to cut off my left arm,” Kluveld recalled. The university staff then proceeded to escort her to a different building at the request of the students, who demanded they not be “forced” to remain in Kluveld’s vicinity.
“I believe that if they would’ve done something against me, hitting me or knocking me down, nobody would’ve responded,” Kluveld bemoaned, describing the lack of support from Maastricht University colleagues.
The university’s response, which Kluveld slammed as “completely hostile,” was to focus on their employee’s behavior rather than the students’ promotion of antisemitism outside a classroom, she said.
After being summoned to a meeting with the university board, Kluveld defended her actions on May 13 as a form of counter-protest against “injustice, discrimination and Jew-hatred” while asserting her right to record conversations that she was part of, she said in the interview.
‘They were wrong’
Since then, Kluveld has faced more harassment from students and staff and was summoned by her employer for mediation, which she believes could be a “gentle form of euthanasia” ahead of her possible dismissal.
“Now the claim has been made that no one at the faculty wants to work with me or has trust in me,” she said. “They’re never going to give me that trust because they never want to admit that they were wrong.”
“They don’t follow the guidelines for demonstrations. They should have filed a police report regarding hate and discrimination,” she said. “So yes, I think that this university has structural problems when it comes to the safety of Jewish students and staff and people who are pro-Israel.”
Observers have drawn parallels with the wave of hate that swept Columbia University in the aftermath of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, particularly in the wake of a March 12 incident in which Syrian-Lebanese peace activist Rawan Osman was chased off the Maastricht University campus by an organization called Free Palestine Maastricht.
The university also decided to cancel a talk by Shabbos Kestenbaum—a Jewish activist known for initiating a lawsuit against Harvard University for antisemitism—to make way for a Free Palestine Maastricht event.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Kluveld has faced increasing threats to her safety—both on the Maastricht University campus and at home—due to her vocal support of the Jewish state, the Holocaust scholar told JNS.
“I have to take certain safety measures, and at my workplace, certain measures have been taken,” she said. “I’m no longer able to enter my office; nameplates have been removed; I’ve been almost completely removed from the website; my digital existence was almost erased.”
These threats have extended beyond the campus, with dead pigeons—sometimes beheaded and with their hearts removed—left on her vehicle and blood smeared on the car doors, as well as online threats, she said.
While the university has filed police reports for some threats, Kluveld said they have stopped short of addressing antisemitism or Holocaust denial explicitly. “The university simply does not mention antisemitism or Holocaust denial, though these are criminal offenses,” she said.
Kluveld also pointed to the university’s tolerance of student groups like Free Palestine Maastricht, which she noted has glorified the Oct. 7 massacre and called for violence against Zionists on campus.
She argued that Maastricht University’s refusal to ban extremism from campus—instead facilitating it by providing them with offices, which she claimed have been used to collect “thousands upon thousands of euros” for shady Palestinian groups—creates an unsafe environment.
“To what extent are you yourself an antisemite if you allow it to continue to flourish?” Kluveld asked, referencing her research on bystanders in the Holocaust, which she has argued is a tendency closely aligned with the accommodating posture historically exhibited by the Dutch elite.
“Now the universities are being accused of complicity in genocide,” she said of Maastricht University’s decision to evaluate its partnerships with Israeli institutions in response to students’ demands to sever all ties.
“Not a single university had said, ‘Hey, wait a minute.’ No, they start mumbling all sorts of things, but they don’t take action against that accusation. I see that as a serious kind of capitulation,” she stated.
‘They need to go’
Despite the threats and repercussions, Kluveld insisted that she is keen on keeping her position as an associate professor, saying that those enabling campus Jew-hatred should be removed instead.
“They’ve asked me: What’s it like being you, always going against the university policies? So the policy is antisemitism now?” she exclaimed.
“Yes, I want to work there because I believe that anyone who allows this to happen should go, not me. Everyone who is responsible and allows this, the ongoing harassment and bullying, to continue to happen—they need to go,” Kluveld said. “And by doing that, you save the university.”
A spokesman for Maastricht University described Kluveld’s version of the May 13 incident as “inaccurate” in a response to JNS on July 30.
“Maastricht University staff focused first and foremost on defusing the rising emotions on both sides—emotions that each side experienced as intimidating,” Koen Augustijn wrote in a statement. “We shared our own experiences from that day with Ms. Kluveld and made it clear that she is, of course, always free to lodge a formal complaint or file a police report.
The university “previously assisted Ms. Kluveld when she received anonymous threats on social media, including by helping her report them to the police,” he said, adding: “We will continue to provide that support—to her and anyone else in our community who faces threats.
As Kluveld’s employer, “we exercise restraint in sharing information about staff members that is not already public,” Augustijn said. “For obvious reasons, we do not disclose details about security measures.”
The spokesman claimed that the university “does not tolerate violence, discrimination or incitement” and takes action against hate, including through dialogue with members of the Jewish community on campus.
