US rapper Kanye West will be allowed to perform in the Netherlands despite Dutch lawmakers and Jewish activists seeking to ban him from the EU country over multiple antisemitic scandals.
The Dutch government on Friday gave a green light for controversial US musician Kanye West to perform in the country, breaking rank with several other EU nations who sought to keep West out due to his history of antisemitic rants.
Even in the Netherlands, the parliament overwhelmingly voted to ban the rapper.
But the country’s migration minister said this was not enough to deny West entry.
“You need clear reasons to bar people from your country. We did not find those in the analyses that were conducted,” Minister for Asylum and Migration Bart van den Brink said on Friday.
The musician is due to hold two concerts in the city of Arnhem, near the German border, on June 6 and 8. The second performance is set to coincide with West’s 49th birthday.
From Holocaust denial to swastika merchandise
West, who also goes by the name of Ye, repeatedly triggered outrage in recent years by professing his love for Nazis and their leader Adolf Hitler, disputing the historical record on the Holocaust, and espousing antisemitic tropes. Last year, he started selling merchandise featuring swastikas and released a music track dedicated to Hitler.
In January this year, however, the musician took out a full-page advert in The Wall Street Journal to reject and apologize for his past behavior, saying “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite” and “I love Jewish people.”
The US star attributed his behavior to an old brain injury and mental health issues, including a bipolar disorder.
West banned from UK, Poland
The apparent change of course, however, was not enough to leave the scandal behind. In April, Kanye was banned from entering the UK, where he had been scheduled to headline a festival. Days later, the US rapper postponed a concert in France after reports that the French interior minister was trying to block it, and his performance in Poland, set for June 19, was canceled due to what the venue described as “formal and legal reasons.”
Earlier this year, a Jewish advocacy group in the Netherlands called for West’s concert to be canceled, saying his actions had “historical significance, and expressing regret afterwards does not erase them.”
The Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) restated their opposition following the Friday announcement that West will be allowed to perform in the Netherlands.
“It is incomprehensible that the Netherlands is unable to draw a moral line regarding who is offered a stage and who is not,” said CIDI director Naomi Mestrum.
