Dutch anti-Israel activist agrees to plea bargain after wishing JNS reporter dead

A Dutch anti-Israel activist who wished JNS Israel correspondent Akiva Van Koningsveld dead has agreed to pay 150 euros ($158) in a plea bargain, the Netherlands’ Public Prosecution Service announced Wednesday.

“The public prosecutor considers the offense legally and convincingly provable and has imposed a fine of €150.00 on the suspect,” the body announced, adding that “personal circumstances,” his prior criminal record and sentencing guidelines were all taken into consideration in the ruling.

The ruling comes almost two years after Jan Tervoort in a June 22, 2023, X post urged Palestinian terror groups to target Van Koningsveld.


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Earlier this week, two of my neighbors were slaughtered in cold blood by the "Palestinian resistance."

In response, an activist connected to the BDS organization @TheRightsForum called for my murder.

This is the true face of BDS.@israelpolice @AmichaiChikli @POL_Eenheid_NH pic.twitter.com/gyEg42zv74

— Akiva van Koningsveld (@koningsveld) June 23, 2023

Describing Van Koningsveld as a “judeo-fascist illegal Jewish settler in the West Bank” and “not an innocent Israeli citizen,” Tervoort wrote he “sincerely” hoped the “Palestinian resistance shoots him dead.”

Tervoort issued his threat two days after a Hamas gunman murdered four Israeli civilians at a restaurant just outside Van Koningsveld’s hometown of Eli in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria.

The JNS reporter, who immigrated to the Jewish state some five years ago from the Netherlands, filed a complaint with Dutch authorities within 24 hours, but police refused to file charges after Tervoort promised officers during a house call he would cease his threats.

However, only a day after the so-called “stop conversation” with police, Tervoort took to X, telling his followers, “Yesterday, I thought I crossed the line and would never do it again, but after thinking about it for a day, I have to admit that I still ‘hope’ @koningsveld will be shot to bits etc…”

After another complaint by Van Koningveld was rejected by prosecutors, the government agreed to indict Tervoort during legal proceedings Van Koningsveld eventually initiated at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.

The Public Prosecution Service’s decision to slap Tervoort with a fine apparently went against its own sentencing guidelines, which say that crimes committed against journalists and with “discriminatory aspects,” including antisemitism, are to be punished more severely.

For repeat offenders with an existing criminal record, such as Tervoort, the sentencing guidelines also call for a higher fine or community service.

In September, a court sentenced the pro-Palestinian activist to 20 hours of community service after he called on his followers to contact the employers of Jan Franke, a journalist from the Netherlands who was previously based in the Gaza Strip and reported on the presence of Hamas terrorists under Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.

In 2017, Tervoort, who works as a tour guide in Amsterdam and claims to organize Jewish heritage trips for visitors from the United States, received a suspended sentence after he assaulted British tourists.

Local Jewish organizations previously charged Tervoort with Jew-hatred after he publicly called on left-wing political parties in the Netherlands to expel some Jewish members lest they “weaponize” antisemitism.

In recent years, Tervoort has reportedly been working on a book about what he described as the “Israel lobby and Jewish culture” in Europe. A 2020 crowdfunding campaign by Tervoort to support the project raised only €1,845 ($1,935), some €18,000 short of the target.

He has also appeared on Press TV, the English-language propaganda outlet of the Iranian regime. In October, Tervoort denied accusations of antisemitism in an interview with Press TV, accusing the “Israel lobby” of trying to hurt his business and “intimidating” him at his home. PJC