Speech upon receiving a short story collection about the consequences of the Gaza war in the Netherlands

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for this invitation. I am honoured to receive this anthology. "Woe to those who call evil good."

Mona Keijzer

Today we celebrate Liberation Day. Before I left this morning, I hung out the Dutch flag. But with a heavy heart. Liberation. Freedom. Do we still have it? Does the country that was fought and suffered for still exist? Or are we slowly waking up to realise that the idea we have of that country - freedom, fundamental rights, tolerance - has been taken for granted for too long, and that it is high time for serious maintenance?

For some time now I hav e experienced that deeply harmful groupthink, the forceful imposition of a particular narrative, has become reality. As a young woman from Volendam, I entered the municipal council of Waterland (Monnickendam, Broek in Waterland, you know it) in 1994. In North Holland politics and in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region, I noticed more than once that so-called liberal, open-minded urban politicians actually looked down on me and my village. The liberal attitude toward life, the acceptance of those who think differently, unity in diversity, in practice it turned out to be thin. On top of that, I was also a member of the CDA. "You don't really believe in God, do you?" or "A young woman like you doesn't go to church, surely?" were the questions I was asked.

In the years that followed, I saw that this attitude was no isolated incident, but a recurring pattern: tolerance as long as you stayed within the unwritten norm, but skepticism or even contempt the moment you deviated from it. It remained at the level of words, of snide remarks and subtle exclusion, unpleasant, but nothing more. It rolled off me.

In 2020, not only did woke ideology blow over from the United States, but the covid crisis also began. In March of that year it became clear to me that Dutch society, under pressure, was incapable of living by its own principles. The constitution and civil liberties were trampled underfoot. The majority of Dutch people followed along like docile sheep, or wisely kept their mouths shut. Some called the police when there was a party at the neighbours'.

Then came October 7, 2023. On October 7, 2023, Hamas crossed a moral line that we thought would never be crossed again after the Second World War: the murder of Jews, for the fact that they are Jews. Children, women, the elderly. Slaughtered, raped, abducted. The following day, the opposite of what would normally have happened began, days of reflection on the victims, analyses of Hamas ideology and their sharia law, condemnations from the United Nations, international solidarity against Islamist brother organisations. None of that. Even the women's division of the UN needed weeks to speak out about the sexual violence against the women. I was appalled. People cheered. The barbaric killing was celebrated.

Where had the civilisation that the elite constantly put on display gone?

The NOS quoted Hamas. University boards came out with feeble statements. Room was made for pro-Palestinian groups while Jewish academics and students were pushed out. "It's fine for things to chafe," was how mayors described it.

Here too: groupthink, risk-averse, wishy-washy talk. The media, the arts and culture world, universities, left-wing and progressive politicians and administrators. Everyone follows the same story. And this continues to this day. The reports about the financing of protests by Hamas, the so-called killed journalists who turned out to be largely terrorists, did you see that as the lead story on the eight o'clock news? Days of newspaper analysis? Columnists falling over each other to weigh in?

No. That only happens when events fit the dominant narrative. When you can take a stand without any social risk.

May 5th is the day we say: never again. Never look away again. Never normalise again. Never again pretend that words have no meaning. Ms. Zilversmit said it pointedly yesterday, describing how it went in the 1940s: "Not one big moment, but an accumulation of small steps. Rules. Forms. People who carry out orders, go along, look away."

This book contributes to the counter-movement. Because words have meaning. It took three follow-up questions before the Minister of Education could bring herself to say that "Kill all Zionists" is probably a criminal offence. "From the river to the sea" is not an advertising slogan, it is a call to wipe out a people. "Global Intifada Now" is a call for a worldwide massacre of Jews. Right now.

In my view, these words have unquestionably contributed to the antisemitism that is flooding through our streets. Such words are an expression of moral decay. Of precisely what the title of this book reflects: a dangerous inversion of good and evil.

Why did I begin by telling you about my own experiences? Because I have seen how cowardly the administrative, political, and judicial upper class of the Netherlands actually is. It is high time they showed their true colours. What does it mean to be open-minded, liberal, progressive? To stand up for minorities. To be against discrimination and hatred. To be clear about how wrong, deeply uncivilised, and immoral it is to call for the killing of a people. You may think whatever you like about Netanyahu, but denying Israel's right to exist is antisemitic. And don't tell me that anti-Zionism is something different from antisemitism. That debate might have been possible at an academic level twenty years ago. Certainly not after October 7. It denies the right to self-determination and self-defence. It effectively states that what is normal for all other peoples - having their own state - does not apply to Jews.

Zionism means nothing more than that Jews, after centuries of persecution, have the right to a safe place. To their own state, where they do not have to flee, hide, or justify their existence.

The entire discussion is shameful. It shifts the norm. Not with a single decree. But step by step. Through language. Through slogans. Through normalising the idea that the Jewish state may disappear, with all its people in it. Make no mistake. In a procedural debate with Denk it became painfully clear that sharia would be part of that new, dreamed-of Palestinian state. We know what that means.

I am not Jewish. I am registered with the Roman Catholic Church, and I know for certain that after the Saturday people, the Sunday people will be next. Who are they? Do not lull yourself to sleep: a world with no place for Israel is ultimately a world with no safe place for Jews. And after them, the Christians, the free women, and the gay people will be next.

The relativisation of October 7 is dangerous. Whoever trivialises that attack, justifies it, or places it in a supposedly "understandable" context is on the wrong side of history. Not out of ignorance, but out of moral blindness. You must grieve for every child who has died in Gaza. But that is something different from rejecting the Israeli people and siding with the Palestinians.

May 5th. Liberation Day. When will we again have a May 5th where a Jew can wear their Star of David or kippah? Where stolpersteine remain undamaged on the street. Where a Jew does not first have to pass the "renounce Netanyahu" test before every conversation.

Freedom is not an abstract concept. Freedom means that you can visibly be who you are, without fear. Freedom means that the state provides space, but also protects. And freedom means that lines are drawn, precisely when that is uncomfortable.

And yet it is so simple. Terrorism is terrorism. Hatred is hatred. And antisemitism remains antisemitism, even when it hides behind new words. History teaches us one thing with great clarity: antisemitism never disappears on its own. It grows when it is ignored. It radicalizes when it is excused. And it becomes lethal when it is not fought. That responsibility cannot rest with the Jews alone, by making Jewish life more visible, as it is now called. The responsibility right now lies primarily with people like me: politicians and administrators. And with citizens to take a stand.

It does me good to be here today. I receive this first copy with a sense of duty. Freedom does not fall like manna from heaven. Because freedom requires maintenance and straight backs. People who keep fighting for it. This anthology warns us. How quickly freedom seeps away. Against the trivialisation of violence. Against the disguising of hatred as activism. You do not call evil good. And you do not call darkness light. Never again. But above all - above all - this book takes a stand against the cowardice of silence when speaking is necessary.

Thank you - Mona Keijzer (politician and member of parliament from the Netherlands) The original speech can be found here: https://www.monakeijzer.nl/2026/05/07/speech-na-het-in-ontvangst-nemen-van-een-verhalenbundel-over-de-gevolgen-van-de-gaza-oorlog-in-nederland/

Order the book "Wee hun die het kwade goed noemen" by Martin Harlaaer here: https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/wee-hun-die-het-kwade-goed-noemen/9300000251555380/

Keyvan Shahbazi (Tehran, 1964) is a cultural psychologist, writer, and commentator, and the author of the bestselling book about Iran, The American of Karaj. He has advised Dutch government officials, taught at the Police Academy, and is a board member of the Committee Iran Free. In 2024 he was named Freethinker of the Year; in 2025 he was nominated for the Pim Fortuyn Prize. He won the Pim Fortuyn prize in 2026. He wrote columns for de Volkskrant for many years and has published in De Telegraaf since 2020. In 2025, two of his books were simultaneously in the Bestseller Top 60.