Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

592 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:589“Afterwards, I thought a lot about what she said. Within three days, theperpetrators became the victims and the victims had become perpetrators. Achange of roles had taken place. Since then, I have seen similar examples ofthis phenomenon.“In the weeks following 9-11, there was unrest in Amsterdam West,where many Muslims live. A few weeks later, Moroccan youngsters threwstones at Jews who were coming out of the synagogue. I still had to finishmy article on the synagogue. I called the police to check what was happening.The police spokesman said, ‘I would prefer if you don’t pay too muchattention to this incident. These people are already in an unfavorable position.’He wasn’t speaking about the Jews at whom the stones were thrown,but about the Muslims who threw the stones.”The writer of these paragraphs, Elma Drayer, worked at the Dutchdaily Trouw from 2001 until 2010 as an editor and columnist. Now she is afreelance journalist. “This incident must be seen in a larger context,” Drayersays. “In recent years, one hears public statements that were deemedsocially unacceptable in the Netherlands after the Second World War. Afterthe war, antisemitism was heavily suppressed. Now people speak about theJews in an increasingly condescending way. This is also related to thechanged position of Israel. One cannot separate the anti-Israel mood fromantisemitism. The antisemitism, which was latent after the Second WorldWar, now has reemerged with great force.“To this has to be added that many people do not take Muslims seriously,but view them with pity. This is a new form of the ancient paternalism.Yet if one states that this construct plays a major role in the judgmentabout Israel, one receives responses like, ‘You are never allowed to sayanything about Israel because then you are immediately termed anantisemite.’ ”Drayer continues, “In a column about the conference of Holocaustdeniers in Teheran in 2006, I wrote: ‘Maybe I missed it, but I haven’t seenany angry Jews shouting in our streets, marching toward the IranianEmbassy. I didn’t hear them chant ‘All Muslims are liars.’ Nowhere have Iseen an effigy of Ahmadinejad in flames. Yet, this conference was anincredible provocation. On the other hand, the Muslim world requires farless provocation in order to explode. One only has to remember the reactionsto the Danish Muhammed cartoons. His followers started riots; tens ofpeople were killed as a result. Yet many Dutch bloggers and opinion makersexpressed their solidarity with the Muslims.“In many places, there was a call to respect Muslim sensitivities. Weshould understand that one should not joke about them and our cartoonistsshould show more restraint. There were no similar expressions of support