AMSTERDAM (JTA) — A former staffer at a Muslim political party in the Netherlands sent an email to a newspaper that was attacked this week saying “May you get cancer, you filthy, far-right cancer Jews.”
Hussein Jamakovic, who worked for the Denk Muslim party, which Dutch Jews allege is anti-Semitic, wrote the message to Telegraaf, the country’s largest-circulation daily, as well as three other news organizations.
The message came amid elevated concern in the Netherlands for the safety of journalists following the attack Tuesday on Telegraaf, when a van drove into the newspaper’s entrance in Amsterdam. Police do not have any suspects in custody.
Telegraaf is seen to have a center-right editorial line. The pro-Israel publication features an activist and a hostile attitude toward radical Islam. It also covers organized crime regularly and thoroughly.
Jamakovic’s message was over reports of his alleged expressions of sympathy for the Islamic State terrorist group. He also sent the email to the DDS, WNL and GeenStijl news sites.
Last week, a projectile was launched at the office of the Dutch magazine Panorama. No one was hurt and a 41-year-old man was arrested.
On Thursday, an American man with a legal dispute against the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, over its coverage of the man is believed to have shot dead five people in an attack on the paper’s newsroom. The incident highlighted the issue of attacks on journalists worldwide.
Last year, a Denk lawmaker implied in a parliamentary document that JTA’s Europe correspondent was an Israeli government agent.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
