The Stiba Foundation, which combats anti-Semitism in Holland, has filed criminal libel complaints against the daily De Volkskrant and one of its staff writers, Jan Blokker, for articles likening certain aspects of Israel to Nazi Germany.
The articles, on the subject of Israel 20 years after the Six-Day War, appeared in a special supplement published June 6. According to Stiba chairman Richard Stein, they are not only anti-Israel but anti-Semitic.
Blokker, who writes a satirical column and is not an authority on the Middle East, based his article on a one-week visit to Israel. He found a likeness between Israel’s architecture and the buildings of Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer. He compared a blonde Israeli woman soldier to Nazi women and saw a similarity between Israel’s military awards and the Nazi “oak leaves.”
Other articles in the supplement cast Israel in poor light, Stiba charged. But the editors of De Volkskrant dismissed the complaints as unjustifiable. They said the supplement was “honest journalism” which gave a “balanced portrayal” of Israel today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
