Dutch police arrest 20-year-old over alleged plot against synagogue

Dutch police and the Public Prosecution Service have arrested a 20-year-old on suspicion of helping plan an attack on a synagogue in Heemstede, near Haarlem. Authorities believe the suspected plan involved either planting an explosive device or committing arson. According to DutchNews, investigators say the man was part of a group with terrorist intentions toward the synagogue and the Jewish community.

The latest arrest took place on June 9, and a court extended the suspect’s detention by another 14 days last Friday. It comes after earlier arrests in the same case, including two Amsterdam teenagers, aged 14 and 17, who were detained near the same synagogue overnight between March 19 and 20 on suspicion of possessing powerful explosives. A third Amsterdam teenager was arrested a week later on similar suspicions.

The foiled plot is part of a broader rise in antisemitic incidents in the Netherlands this year. One major case involved the overnight arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam. Four young men admitted carrying out that attack, but told the local court they did not know the building was used as a synagogue. Prosecutors, however, say it was a deliberate terrorist act.

Other incidents include an explosion at a Jewish school and at an office complex in Amsterdam. A Muslim terrorist group calling itself the “Islamic Movement of the Right-Wing Members” claimed responsibility for that attack, as well as similar synagogue attacks in Liège, Belgium, on March 9, in Rotterdam on March 13, and in Greece on March 11. In response to the wave of incidents, the Dutch Justice Ministry has raised its annual budget for protecting Jewish buildings to 2 million euros.