Jewish security budget rises to €2 million after attacks

Justice minister David van Weel has added €700,000 to the 2026 budget for securing Jewish buildings and institutions in the Netherlands, raising the annual total to €2 million. He announced the increase during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday amid a rise in antisemitic attacks.

The money funds security at synagogues, Jewish schools, cultural institutions and events. Van Weel told MPs the existing €1.3 million budget had been overwhelmed by applications in 2025, with dozens going unfunded, and he expected further demand this year. The increase was intended to “better protect the Jewish community and strengthen its sense of safety”, he said.

The announcement comes after a wave of attacks on Jewish institutions in March. Small explosions went off outside a synagogue in Rotterdam on 12 March and outside the Cheider Jewish school in Amsterdam two days later, followed by a third blast outside a Zuidas office building housing the Bank of New York Mellon.

Prosecutors have charged four men from Tilburg with terrorism offences over the synagogue attack.

Tuesday’s debate was formally about the report of the cabinet’s antisemitism taskforce, which set out 11 proposals for protecting Jewish students and staff in higher education. Mirjam Bikker, leader of the orthodox Protestant ChristenUnie, used the debate to argue that the state should pay for security at Jewish institutions in full.

She called the current model – where synagogues and schools fund their own protection – “a fundamental reversal of responsibility”.