One day ahead of Kanye West’s summer tour kickoff in Istanbul, he has received the go-ahead from officials in the Netherlands for planned dates in the city of Arnhelm on June 6 and 8, despite pushback and protests in the country.
“Solid grounds are needed to bar people from entering [the country]. We have not found those in the analyses that were conducted,” Deputy Prime Minister Bart van den Brink said on Friday, as reported by Reuters. “His past statements are not, at this moment, a reason to deny him entry.”
Van den Brink was referencing West’s history of antisemitic statements in recent years — including the release of a song titled “Heil Hitler” — which have alienated him from countless fans and observers across the world. Although West has apologized for them, blaming mental illness, many question his sincerity.
In January, West purchased a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal asking for forgiveness and attributing his behavior to his bipolar type-1 diagnosis, which prompted a “four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”
In the Netherlands earlier this month, a plurality of those in the House of Representatives called for banning West from the country, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported. The Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) had also called for a ban in the country.
