The Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands, which counts among its members some of the country’s most prominent Jewish religious and pro-Israel groups, has called on the government to take a stand after a Dutch royal appeared to engage in online fundraising for Hamas.
Countess Eloise of Orange-Nassau, 21, a granddaughter of former Queen Beatrix and fifth in line to the Dutch throne, in a Jan. 4 TikTok post used a watermelon filter that allows users to raise funds to support the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by E.U.-designated Hamas terrorists.
The watermelon effect, a tracing game with the user dragging a watermelon across a line while collecting seeds, generates money through the app’s Effect Creator program every time someone uses it. It is unclear whether the funds end up in terrorist hands.
“This filter does donate money??” asked Countess Eloise in the Jan. 4 video.
In a press release sent out over the weekend, the Central Jewish Board said that “the fact that a prominent member of our royal family expresses herself in this way is disappointing and painful for many Dutch Jews.
“The war in Israel has a tremendous impact on the Dutch Jewish community, both through its ties with Israel and indirectly through the massive increase in antisemitism in our country,” continued the organization.
In addition to urging the outgoing Dutch government to take a stand, the Jewish organization called on the countess “to distance herself from her previous statements, take down the posts and return the donations.”
In 2020, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands publicly acknowledged his great-grandmother Queen Juliana’s perceived indifference to the fate of Dutch Jews during the Holocaust.
“Fellow human beings felt abandoned, insufficiently heard, insufficiently supported,” Willem-Alexander said at a memorial ceremony. “Also from London by my great-grandmother, despite her steadfast resistance [to the Nazis.] It’s something that won’t let go of me.”
Three months ago, the Dutch government confirmed the authenticity of a Nazi Party card held by Willem Alexander’s grandfather, Prince Bernhard, who served as prince consort between 1948 and 1980. Bernhard had repeatedly denied having been a member of Adolf Hitler’s party.
The predecessor of the Netherlands’ General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), called the BVD, regarded Holocaust survivors who were part of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee as extremists and spied on them in the 1980s, an investigation revealed late last month.