Justice minister David van Weel has said there are strong indications that the four teenagers arrested after an arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam were recruited to carry out the crime, and that a possible link with Iran is also being investigated.
Speaking during parliament’s weekly question time, Van Weel said “everything points” to the young suspects having been recruited by others. Identifying who may be behind the attack is now a key part of the investigation, he said. “The possibility that Iran was involved is also being explicitly examined.”
The comments follow three small explosions in the Netherlands in the past few days – a fire at a synagogue in Rotterdam, a minor explosion outside a Jewish school in Amsterdam and a small blast at an office complex in Amsterdam which houses several companies, including the Bank of New York.
Police have arrested four suspects in connection with the Rotterdam attack. The public prosecution service intends to charge the four, all from Tilburg, with causing an explosion and arson with terrorist intent.
Van Weel said the apparent recruitment of young men to carry out attacks is itself a serious concern. “The fact that young men are prepared to commit terrible acts for a relatively small payment is a problem. We see this not only in this case, but more widely,” he told MPs.
There have been hundreds of small explosions, often firework-fueled, in the Netherlands over the past few years. Some are organised-crime related, others stem from person disputes, and dozens of youngsters have been arrested for setting them.
Van Weel said the most recent incidents were being felt as “a direct attack on Jewish life in the Netherlands” and confirmed that additional security measures had been taken outside Jewish institutions.
During the debate, several MPs called on the government to get tough. SGP MP André Flach quoted a Jewish community representative who said the community was not asking “for sympathy, but for action”, and asked what concrete steps the minister intended to take.
Van Weel did not announce any new measures but said the government would review its existing approach to tackling antisemitism which dates from 2024. He said suggestions from parliament and from the Jewish community would be taken “very seriously”.
Other suspects
Police have also released images of two men who are suspected of being involved in the explosion on Saturday morning outside the Jewish school Cheider in Amsterdam.
The footage shows the men riding towards the school on a scooter which stops briefly, allowing the cameras to reveal their faces.
Two men accused of carrying out a third explosion at an office in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam travelled to the scene on a fatbike, police confirmed on Tuesday.
