Author: thebedtimeactivist

Dear Mrs Halsema, Mayor of the City of Amsterdam, At this very moment a handful of your citizens are in detention for hours already in a cell block in Amsterdam, unsure of when they will be released. Their crime? Standing up peacefully to a well known organized white supremacist group which, on Afrika Day, decided… Continue reading Actions not explanations

There is always this one phone call that you always expected, and when it actually happens, it takes you fully by surprise. Working at the intersection of antiracism and antisemitism, there are two worlds to connect, but more importantly, there are two worlds that will predominantly work to deny the importance of the other.  The… Continue reading Shooting in your foot

This is the starting point: far right sentiments, ideology and rhetoric cannot be tolerated to take over the public spheres – the streets of our Capital in particular! – and must be opposed at all times. However, a counter demonstration cannot be the be-all and end-all in the consolidation of allyship and the confronting/dismantling of… Continue reading Up to us – part 3/3: It’s not even past

** On January 2nd the far right marched the streets of Amsterdam under the guise of anti-corona sentiments, in a demonstration that was officially banned by the municipality. A group of Jews decided to lead a counter-demonstration at the Jewish resistance memorial. This blog is the second part of a trilogy bringing forward why this… Continue reading Up to us – part 2/3: the days before

** On January 2nd the far right marched the streets of Amsterdam under the guise of anti-corona sentiments, in a demonstration that was officially banned by the municipality. A group of Jews decided to lead a counter-demonstration at the Jewish resistance memorial. This blog is the first part of a trilogy bringing forward why this… Continue reading Up to us – part 1/3: the demonstration

How often does it happen that Jews are represented in Dutch media in a cultural and productive way? Last weekend it did: a positive and fun newspaper item about Jews! An almost casual item in which Jewish fashion and lifestyle briefly met Jewish/Black intersectionality and solidarity. It was titled ‘Jewish and a bunch of curls:… Continue reading Hair, hair!

The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is in town again. Two weeks of the best documentaries bathing in people, societies, stories and dreams that are worlds away from my own, or so I thought. This year I am invited to moderate the screening of a French film, May God Be With You, an autobiographical dive… Continue reading Existing as a political act

The session “Combating Anti-Zionist and Antisemitic Activism in Progressive Spaces” at the recent worldwide annual summit on antisemitism and hate caught my attention. The discourse about anti-zionism as related to antisemitism in progressive spaces is very real, also in the Netherlands. If I were to describe this in the most condensed way possible, these would… Continue reading Progressive antisemitism

This past Saturday we witnessed the biggest Climate demonstration ever to be held in the Netherlands. More than 40,000 people took to the streets of Amsterdam to protest against the inaction of world leaders in general and the Dutch politicians in particular who have repeatedly failed to take the climate crisis seriously. Besides the high… Continue reading Antisemitic climate

The past couple of weeks there has not been much bedtime activist writing. A combination of the summer season, moving and a good dose of covid left the keyboard out of sight. But definitely not out of mind. Let me pick up the thread of my blogs with something that keeps on coming back, and… Continue reading To catch my voice again