The Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, had been urged by Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs to cancel the conference. Rabbi Jacobs said the mayor had refused but promised that “a few of his people” would be present to “make sure nothing antisemitic will happen or will be said”.
The mayor later said the conference had been authorised by the Dutch National Co-ordination Board for Counterterrorism and Security, though a spokesperson for the group reportedly denied this.
The Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands issued a rebuke, saying: “The silent march in Rotterdam, which is the least one can and should do against those who preach hate, extremism and terror, was not allowed to take place.”
Among the speakers at the PRC conference was Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanon-born activist who was fired by Belgian daily De Standaard in January for defending violent attacks on Jewish Israelis. After a truck was driven into a group of IDF soldiers in Jerusalem, he wrote on Twitter: “An attack on occupation soldiers in occupied territory is not terrorism! It is an act of resistance. #FreePalestine.”
