A group of protesters disrupted Rotterdam’s annual memorial ceremony honoring Jewish residents who were deported during World War II, temporarily bringing the event to a standstill, according to an ANP reporter at the scene.

The protesters interrupted a speech by Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Zvi Aviner Vapni, by chanting slogans. The disruption came from multiple factions. While a small group of vocal protesters actively shouted slogans during Ambassador Vapni’s speech, others organized a silent protest orchestrated by the Rotterdam Palestine Coalition (RPC). Several attendees actively turned their backs on the ambassador as he spoke to show their dissent. The ceremony resumed after they were removed from the event.

The decision to invite Israel’s ambassador to the commemoration was criticized by several Rotterdam council factions, municipal employees, and dozens of civil society organizations, who cited Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. The Israeli ambassador had attended all previous editions of the annual memorial.

Before the ceremony even commenced, the Dutch police had to forcefully remove a number of demonstrators from the immediate vicinity. About ten individuals carrying anti-Israel signs were relocated to a designated protest area situated roughly 150 meters away from the monument, according to the AD.

The specific political factions demanding the ambassador be barred were led by municipal council parties DENK and the Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD), The Rights Forum reported.

The tension fractured local representation. A wreath is traditionally laid on behalf of all the city’s neighborhood and village councils, but several local councils refused to participate this year. The council of Bloemhof, the very district within Feijenoord where the monument sits, voted unanimously to boycott the event, while the neighborhood councils of Hillesluis and Oosterflank also withdrew.

The internal opposition included an official letter signed by Rotterdam municipal employees sent to Rotterdam Mayor Carola Schouten. They explicitly urged her to stay away if the ambassador attended, claiming his invitation “tarnished” the dignity of the event and arguing that her presence would inadvertently legitimize the actions of the current Israeli state.

Local Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Community of Rotterdam (Joodse Gemeente Rotterdam), issued a statement heavily criticizing the pro-Palestinian boycott, calling it a polarizing move that “hijacked” the memory of the Holocaust for modern geopolitical conflicts. They emphasized that Holocaust remembrance should serve as a moment of unified focus against antisemitism, rather than a place of exclusion.

Theo Kemperman, chairman of the Stichting Loods 24, firmly defended the invitation. He emphasized that the ambassador represents the state of Israel, which historically became the refuge and home for the vast majority of Holocaust survivors who left Europe after WWII.

Several hundred people attended the memorial ceremony. Schouten placed a wreath on behalf of the municipal government and residents of Rotterdam at the “Wall” and the Jewish Children’s Monument in Rotterdam-Zuid, commemorating Jewish victims from the city who were killed in the Holocaust.

The historic “wall” of Loods 24 on the Stieltjesstraat in Rotterdam-Zuid is profoundly significant: it served as the designated gathering and deportation point from which 6,790 Jewish residents of Rotterdam were rounded up and sent to Nazi extermination camps like Auschwitz and Sobibór starting in 1942. The targeted tribute also honors the 686 children from the city who were deported and murdered during the Holocaust.

The ceremony included speeches by Schouten and the ambassador, prayers, wreath-laying, and a minute of silence.