In the Netherlands, even a souvenir in a Jew's suitcase can become a political issue - opinion

Europe has discovered a new threat to the international rules-based order: the souvenir in your suitcase.Since September 22, travelers arriving at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol may have their luggage searched, possessions confiscated, and names referred to the Public Prosecution Service if their bags contain an item made in an Israeli settlement.It does not matter whether the item is a gift, a personal keepsake, or a purchase made years before the ban. Dutch customs officers are instructed to consult European postal codes to determine whether an olive-wood trinket or a jar of face cream carries a prohibited address.A bottle of wine, an heirloom, a household item: somewhere along its production chain lies the wrong postal code. Europe's moral conscience can now, it seems, be settled at the baggage carousel.This policy is presented as an objective defense of international law. Before applauding, we should ask two questions: Why this exceptional zeal? And why does the historical memory that animates it run so reliably in only one direction?The geography of this moral fervor warrants scrutiny. During the Nazi occupation, three-quarters of the Netherlands' Jewish population was systematically murdered.That catastrophe was enabled not only by foreign occupiers but also by the quiet, methodical cooperation of Dutch civil servants, municipal clerks, and police officers who processed forms and enforced decrees without asking what justice required.This history…