DOMINANT ANGLE
The Netherlands is deciphering a divided Israel: three years after October 7, the Dutch press is linking the memory of the victims to the election that will judge Netanyahu.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
NRC (October 6): "Directly after the attack [...] Israel was united, but there is little of that left now".
- 02
Naza, a documentary based on interviews with 24 anonymous Israeli soldiers and intelligence agents, is being pulled from most Dutch cinemas from Tuesday until the weekend.
- 03
NRC's October 7 podcast asks how the attack could have occurred under Netanyahu, "the man who guaranteed security for Israelis".
ANALYSIS
Amsterdam, October 7, 2026. For the Dutch press, the third anniversary of October 7 is first and foremost seen through the lens of Israel from the inside, a country divided as it approaches elections. NRC, in a report published on October 6, notes that "directly after the attack" in 2023, the country was united, but that "there is now little left of that." Israelis are now strongly divided, both on the future of the country and on the memory of the victims.
The newspaper focuses on the site of the Nova festival, near the Gaza Strip, which has become a place of remembrance after the death of hundreds of partygoers in the attack carried out from Gaza under the direction of Hamas. For Simhat Torah, hundreds of young women and teenagers dance there at night, separated from men by a fence. Apart from the crowd, Iris Shapira, a 54-year-old lawyer, holds up protest signs. "This is a place of mourning and pain for the families," she says: according to her, the participants "should not dance on their blood."
On October 7, an NRC podcast with editor Derk Walters poses the central question of the election: how could the attack have occurred with Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, "the man who guaranteed security for Israelis"? The title states it bluntly: October 7 will determine the political future of Netanyahu. The report also mentions the hope of some Israelis that the elections will bring about change.
DutchNews opens a second angle, closer to the Netherlands. Screenings of the Israeli documentary Naza are suspended in most Dutch cinemas from Tuesday to the weekend, so as not to coincide with the commemoration. The two directors, who fear for their safety and that of their families remaining in Israel, requested it; the distributor Cherry Pickers has complied with their wish. The film is based on interviews with 24 anonymous Israeli military and intelligence agents, who describe civilians being killed routinely. DutchNews specifies that Israeli officials dispute "many of the claims" and that the government is seeking to strip the two filmmakers of their nationality.
A screening in Delft, on the opening day, was interrupted by an Israeli group, one of whose members recounted the murder of her family by Hamas. The two articles thus show the memory of October 7 being contested even in Dutch theaters, without foreign diplomacies or the Gaza balance structuring the narrative.
