Why do Islamic children in the Netherlands learn that Jews are the enemy?

Opinion Jamal Ouariachi- 7:30, August 7, 2018

Column

When I grew up in Amsterdam in the eighties and nineties, it was obvious which way you chose in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that of the underdog, the Palestinians. And then I also had a Moroccan father.

Arabs of all countries, or Muslims in general, consider themselves to be strongly connected with their Palestinian brothers. I never pushed those ideas through the throat - they seemed natural.

Only in the first decade of this century did that rock-solid conviction begin to crumble. With the Jewish professor I graduated from, I always had intense conversations about politics and literature during our lunch breaks. We exchanged a lot of books, and it was from him that I received a "story of love and darkness" from the Israeli writer Amos Oz as a gift. An autobiographical account that did not change my position so much, but offered a more refined look on that 'other side', the Israeli.

Glorify

In the same period Islamic suicide terrorism quickly gained popularity, also among Palestinians. I could not do anything about it, that glorification of death, the applause of a suicide bomber as a martyr. Resistance fighters who fight for a better life are prepared to compromise. Resistance fighters who see death as the highest achievable do not bind an inch. The result: a total impasse.

And what did the international brotherhood of Arabs meanwhile? Nothing.

In recent years I have been trying to ignore the news about the conflict. The mutual massacres are nothing but a self-confirming repetition of moves. I only look back when something positive is tried, however small-scale. But even then it always ends up in misery.

In NRC I read last week about the cooperation between the Moroccan-Dutch singer Teema and her Israeli colleague Noam Vazana. When the two last years performed at a jazz festival in Tangier, the anti-Israeli organization BDS called for a boycott. The duo had to be secured, visitors stayed away for fear of an attack. Since then, Teema has barely been booked in Arab countries: she has had a 'murderer of Palestinian children'.

International boycott

An old annoyance flared up: about that hypocritical international brotherhood of Arabs or Muslims. Most leaders in the Islamic world enthusiastically see their own people murdered, tortured and oppressed - and they do not do anything for the Palestinians. Rarely do you hear the same kind of explicit hatred as against Israel.

Where is the international boycott organization against King Mohammed VI of Morocco? Why do Islamic children in the Netherlands learn that Jews are the enemy, and not that they have to spit on how Saudis deal with women, or that Iran is the devil because homosexuals are executed there? I am not suddenly pro-Israel. But I do not know anymore who my brothers are.

Jamal Ouariachi is a psychologist and writer. For his novel 'Een Hunger', he received the EU Prize for Literature in 2017. sauce in Dutch: https://www.trouw.nl/opinie/waarom-leren-islamitische-kindertjes-in-nederland-dat-joden-de-vijand-zijn-~aabb588a/