AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Two Dutch mayors condemned the appearance of anti-Semitic stickers on shops in a heavily Jewish suburb of the Dutch capital.
The stickers were spotted earlier this month on the shop windows of several businesses in Amstelveen, a municipality just south of Amsterdam, which is home to approximately one third of the 50,000 Jews living in the Netherlands, the Jewish news website jonet.nl reported Monday.
They feature a nose drawn with a red line across it — an image believed to combine racial stereotypes about Jews and to echo the “no Jews allowed” signs visible throughout Western Europe just before and during the Nazi occupation.
The stickers found in Amstelveen, jonet.nl reported, are available for sale on a website offering memorabilia for fans of Rotterdam’s Feyenoord soccer team, who often call fans of Amsterdam’s Ajax team “Jews” and have chanted anti-Semitic slogans at matches and directly after them to provoke the Ajax fans. Several dozen stickers cost about $7.
Amstelveen Mayor Mirjam van ‘t Veld told the news website metronieuws.nl that the stickers were “unacceptable.”
“As the Jewish community is right to expect, we are looking into the case,” he said.
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Marcouch wrote Tuesday on Twitter: “Wrong! Police and prosecutors [to] find and punish Feyenoord hooligans posting ‘Jew stickers’ on shops.”
At least one police complaint has been filed in connection with the stickers for alleged incitement to hatred, Jonet.nl reported.
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