Explosion damages Jewish school in Amsterdam
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Police officers standing outside a Jewish school following an explosion that caused minor damage in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on March 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
AMSTERDAM – An explosion lightly damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam early on March 14, in what the city’s mayor described as “a deliberate attack against the Jewish community”.
The explosion at the school in an upscale residential neighbourhood on the south side of Amsterdam damaged a rain pipe and charred an outer wall but caused no injuries.
Mayor Femke Halsema said the incident was taken very seriously and would lead to increased security at Jewish institutions.
“This is a cowardly act of aggression against the Jewish community,” she said. “Jewish people in Amsterdam are increasingly confronted with anti-Semitism. This is unacceptable.”
The school is the only one specifically for Orthodox Jews in the Netherlands, and is largely fenced off by a pointed, metal outer wall due to earlier threats.
Security at synagogues and Jewish institutions in the Dutch capital had already been heightened after an overnight arson attack at a synagogue in the centre of Rotterdam on March 13.
In neighbouring Belgium, an explosion caused a fire at a synagogue in Liege on March 9.
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten called the attack in Amsterdam “horrible” and said it understandably caused “fear and anger” in the Jewish community.
“The safety of Jewish institutions has our full attention,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
Concerns about possible attacks against Jewish communities around the world have risen following the US-Israeli attack on Iran and a subsequent response from Tehran. REUTERS
