"We are here to say today: The normalization of antisemitism must stop!": Dr. Eliyahu Sapir's Speech at the Time to Stand for Israel Demonstration April 28, 2025, Dam Square, Amsterdam

Photo made by Arenda Haasnoot

On April 28, 2025, Dr. Eliyahu Sapir delivered a powerful speech at the Time to Stand for Israel demonstration in Amsterdam’s historic Dam Square. Addressing hundreds gathered in solidarity, Sapir passionately articulated the urgent threat posed by the normalization of antisemitism in the Netherlands. With clarity and resolve, he traced the resurgence of antisemitic attitudes and actions—from university campuses to public spaces—highlighting the critical need to confront and reject this hatred decisively.

Sapir emphasized the profound significance of standing together against antisemitism, recalling the painful history of the Holocaust and the imperative promise of "Never Again." In his stirring call to action, he offered concrete steps for community resilience and collective resistance, urging individuals and institutions alike to reject false neutrality and unequivocally defend democracy and human dignity.

Below, you can read Eliyahu Sapir’s full speech, capturing a pivotal moment of unity and resolve against the rising tide of antisemitism.

Speech at the Time to Stand for Israel Demonstration

April 28, 2025, Dam Square, Amsterdam

Friends, today I speak of the single greatest threat we face here, more dangerous than any terrorist attack, more damaging than any manifestation of hate. And this is the normalization of antisemitism in this country. The moment hate stops shocking us and we become desensitized, used to being threatened by this vile poison of antisemitism, as a natural part of everyday life, this is where danger really hits. We are here to say today: The normalization of antisemitism must stop!

Before the five-year Nazi occupation of this country, 140,000 Jews thrived in the Netherlands and called it their home; 75 percent of these Dutch men, women, and children were betrayed and murdered. Those who survived rebuilt families, their synagogues, and their communities on one promise: “NEVER AGAIN!”

Just last week, the Mayor of Amsterdam offered her apologies, a few decades too late, for this city’s role in the Holocaust — without acknowledging how antisemitism has quietly returned to these streets, reaching levels not seen since these dark times. For decades, the promise to “never again” kept silent in the face of antisemitism, shielding us from it - until 18 months ago.

On October 7th, the modern-day Nazis of Hamas and their collaborators slaughtered over 1,200 civilians – Jews and non-Jews; peaceful farmers and party-goers; young babies and old Holocaust survivors. They were looking for Jews. They came to kill and destroy. They raped, murdered, looted, and kidnapped our brothers and sisters, gleefully filming their atrocities for the world to see.

Since then, the hate has echoed in our streets here in the Netherlands as well. On our campuses, in our train stations, in our city squares — accepted as a NORMAL part of daily life, that same poison, that we didn’t see here for decades, returned and kept spreading. We are here to say:

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

What once hid in shadows now greets us every day. Antisemitism has multiplied and mutated by hundreds of percentages. Sixty-three percent of Jewish and Israeli students and staff members no longer feel safe on their campuses. Sixteen percent have been harassed with antisemitism. Many of them, students and professors, are afraid even to speak Hebrew in public. They conceal their kippa and their Magen David. ‘Kill all Zionists!’ became something common to say. In my own university, Maastricht University, we have a student union that posted a call to kill all Zionists. Do you know what was the response of my university? They gave them office space and official recognition.

We say it loud and clear: Anti-Zionism, anti-Israelism, anti-Tel-Avivism, or whatever term they use to hide their hate — are all forms of antisemitism. Why is that? Why are these forms of antisemitism?

BECAUSE: by insisting that Jews—alone among the world’s peoples—cannot have a homeland, anti-Zionism revives the essence of antisemitism: exclusion.

BECAUSE: almost half of the world’s Jews live in Israel, the single largest Jewish community in the entire world.. To oppose Zionism is to oppose the national expression of nearly half the Jewish people.

BECAUSE, as Natan Sharansky told us, when criticism of Israel involves delegitimization (denying Israel’s right to exist), demonization (using classic Jew-hate tropes against Israel this time) and double standard (holding Israel to rules that no other country is held to) – this is antisemitism.

AND BECAUSE: anti-Zionism is not a neutral policy or a neutral political critique but the modern, ugly of antisemitism—a bigotry that demands the erasure of Jewish self-determination.

Excusing hate for Israel is the same as excusing hate for Jews.

Excusing anti-Zionism is the same as excusing antisemitism.

When fear becomes routine, our silence is consent. So we cannot remain silent and must say out clearly and loudly:

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

It all started 18 months ago on our campuses. Immediately after October 7, we saw staff and students glorifying the attacks of Hamas on innocent civilians in Israel, in their classrooms, on social media. Protesters occupy buildings, intimidating Jewish peers and students; and universities appeased extremists by reviewing their ties with Israel.

What happened to the Hamas glorifiers who violated every rule? Universities decided they are not going to tackle that; they are going to tolerate that, as what they now call “free speech.” Because antisemitism became normalized and became part of free speech in our universities.

Then hate seeped into the streets. From the universities, those mobs, Hamas supporters went to the streets and disrupted the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam. They also tried to hijack the Amsterdam Pride parade. They also tried to threaten the 4-day march in Nijmegen. Sit-ins that paralyze all of our Central Station. Violent mobs that shut down pro-Israel speakers, like what happened last month at Radboud University and Maastricht University, where we had a pro-Israel speaker, Rawan Osman. They didn’t let her speak; they didn’t let us listen to her, and in Maastricht, our mayor decided we’re going to be shut down because they didn’t want to stop the antisemites.

This is the result of tolerating antisemitism by those institutions, which enables them to further escalate their vile. So we need to say it clearly:

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

Antisemitism does not become extreme overnight. It grows when people who should know better tolerate it. Imagining that ‘balance’ will change hostile minds. Instead, it escalates and worsens. This threat endangers our entire society. This is not a Jewish problem. A society cannot sustain freedom on a foundation of hate. This is the problem of the entire Dutch society. And this is why we are here, to say:

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

Our political and academic leaders face a choice: they can defend democracy, or chase a hollow balance that equates genocidal chants with political debate. Too often they choose false equivalences, sideling real victims, and signaling that hate can act without consequences. That is not neutrality, it is a collapse of leadership and moral standards. We must tell them clearly:

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

But remember who we are. We are the descendants of survivors and of the heroes who helped those survivors to rebuild from ashes. Every saved book of Torah, every Hebrew word spoken, every Jewish prayer, and the miracle of the Jewish state, is proof that to survive is to resist the hate.

The biggest resistance of all is standing with Israel in these hard times, when many people who thought they could twist reality, who thought they could make up international law and affect public opinion by that, push this as far as they can. They must be stopped. We are not playing games. This is very serious.

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

• We need to push back and we need to start today. There are a few simple things every one of us can do. Report every incident to the police. This is the first step in breaking their impunity.
• Wear your Jewish symbols proudly—kippah, Magen David, Hebrew pins. Visibility is defiance in the face of evil.
• Walk in pairs. Walk in groups. On campus and streets—no one stands alone. Solidarity is safety.
• Write a letter to members of Parliament, city council, or university board.
• Tell them to adopt and enforce a zero-tolerance policy to antisemitism in any of its forms.
• Tell them to stand with Israel, and by that, protect the Netherlands from radicalism and hate.

Thousands of voices cannot be stopped. We need to raise our voices. We need to say it loud; we need to say it clear:

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

From Groningen’s youth synagogue to Radboud and Maastricht’s lecture halls, from Delft’s students to Erasmus’s staff, from central stations to Dam Square: this country must be safe for all of us of us, or it will never be safe for any of us. This is why we must say that loud and clearly:

The normalization of antisemitism must stop today!

עם ישראל חי!

Thank you very much.

Other words of Eliyahu Sapir on this website you can read here and here and here. He also regularly contributes to Dutch Town.