Dutch singer Douwe Bob has been receiving death threats after cancelling a performance at a Jewish children’s soccer event in Amsterdam on Sunday because Zionist propaganda was being spread there, he has told talk show Renze.

“I was confronted by Zionist posters and pamphlets,” the singer told talk show host Renze Klamer. “It’s outrageous that a children’s event was hijacked by political organisations. That’s why I left.”

Douwe Bob said that the organisation of the Jom Ha tournament had broken an agreement to refrain from airing “political or religious statements”, forcing him to walk away. “And now I’m sitting here to convince everyone that I’m not an anti-Semite,” he said.

The singer was particularly critical of VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz, who slated him on social media, saying “Children are being denied a show because of what they are: Jewish. (…) This is how normalised hatred for Jews has become. Pure hate, in plain sight”.

Douwe Bob said the post and others like it had led to him receiving death threats. He said it was painful to be called an anti-Semite, particularly since he had been one of the performers at the opening of the Holocaust museum in Amsterdam in 2024.

The singer, who represented the Netherlands at Eurovision in 2016, said the children are welcome to come to his home and he will sing to them. “It’s purely that they did not keep to the agreement. I followed my heart and did the right thing,” he said.