Dutch Jewish groups have spoken out against Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom, after he told supporters that he would reduce the number of Moroccans in the country, the JTA has reported.

Mr Wilders asked his supporters at a post-election celebration in March whether they wanted “fewer or more Moroccans”.

To their chants of “fewer”, he said that he would “take care of it”.

Although Mr Wilder’s strident support for Israel and his anti-Islamist stance has made him popular among Jews at home and abroad, Dutch Jewish umbrella group, the CJO, released a statement saying they were horrified by his comments about Moroccans.

The Dutch Jewish weekly NIW last month claimed that, “Dutch Jewry is fed up with Geert Wilders.”

Jewish groups in Holland were known to be deeply uncomfortable with Mr Wilders’s decision to forge an alliance in the European Parliament with the National Front, the French far-right party led by Marine Le Pen.

- Dutch Muslim group Platform Bewust Moslim is planning to commemorate “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine” on Holland’s memorial day for victims of Nazism on May 4.