Prosecutors in Amsterdam on Wednesday said that no laws were violated when a rapper chanted during a concert in September, “Death to the IDF” and “Find them on the streets,” before making a pistol gesture while threatening to “bang” Charlie Kirk supporters.
The prosecutors’ decision concerned dozens of complaints filed to police for incitement over statements made by one of the British performers known as Bob Vylan, who have faced allegations of hate speech against Jews and Israelis this year.
The Central Jewish Organization of the Netherlands, in a statement, called the decision “unacceptable” and said it was looking into appealing it.
The chairman of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said the decision, which he told JNS “shows that, 87 years after the Kristallnacht pogroms, the legal systems in Europe have not internalized that those who ignore incitement and the alarm bells they raise will promote, with their silence and inaction, mass murder.”
(The pogroms on Nov. 9-10, 1938, were a campaign of violence staged by Nazis against Jews in Germany and Austria that many historians view as the opening shot of the Holocaust.)
“The decision is especially egregious in light of the severe violence perpetrated against Jews and Israel on Amsterdam’s streets and the Netherlands’ higher education institutions,” added Margolin. “Dutch authorities need to come to their senses. Expressions of shock and grief after the next murder will not wash away the victims’ blood from their hands.”
Bob Vylan was invited to perform at the iconic Paradiso concert hall in Amsterdam after its U.S. and Germany tour was canceled in connection with its members anti-Israel hate speech at the Glastonbury Festival in England in August.
The duo’s singer, who uses the stage name Bobby Vylan but whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, recalled during the concert working for a “Zionist”—a term widely understood to mean “Jew.” He told his audience in August: “We’ve done it all, all right? From working in bars to working for f**king Zionists. And if we can do this, I promise you, you can do absolutely anything that you put your mind to.”
Louis Theroux, a BBC filmmaker, hosted Bobby Vylan on his podcast for an interview last month. Critics said the interview offered the musician a platform and failed to challenge his record of inciting violence.
British Airways last month announced it had suspended its sponsorship of Theroux’s podcast following the interview. “Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused and the advert has been removed,” a spokesperson said.
Theroux has made two documentaries on Jews living in Judea and Samaria that his critics said were unfair and meant to serve as a propaganda tool against those communities and Israel.
