AMSTERDAM: Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday they will charge an Arab cultural group under hate speech laws for publishing a cartoon that suggests the death of 6 million Jews during World War II is a fabrication.
The public prosecutor’s office in the city of Utrecht said the cartoon insults Jews as a group and is therefore an illegal form of discrimination.
Prosecutors plan to press charges for insulting a group and distributing an insulting image.”
Spokeswoman Mary Hallebeek said the maximum punishment is a year in jail, but a fine of up to 4,700 ($6,700) is more likely, given that the charges are against the group.
The Dutch arm of the Arab European League said it doesn’t deny the reality of the Holocaust, but published the cartoon on its website as an “act of civil disobedience” to highlight a double standard.
AEL chairman Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda argued that prosecutors had not pressed charges against Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders for his film that included cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Charges against Wilders, who campaigns on an anti-Islam and anti-immigration platform, were dismissed after prosecutors said his insults were aimed at Muhammad, not all Muslims, and were not systematic.
The charges against the AEL “illustrates what Muslims have been saying for decades,” Bou-zerda said in a response published on the league’s website.
“Freedom of expression is only a pretext to make life bitter for Muslims ... and if (they) try to bring this hypocrisy to light, that right is denied them.”
Bouzerda said anyone should be allowed to publish insulting material in the interest of public debate.
The cartoon shows two apparently Jewish men standing near a pile of skeletons with a sign that says “Auswitch,” presumably representing the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz.
