The area around the new Holocaust museum in Amsterdam is being sealed off for four hours in Sunday in an effort to head off the risk of protests following news that Israeli president Yitzhak Herzog will be at the opening ceremony.

Herzog was reportedly invited before the Hamas raids on Israel last October, but pro-Palestine campaigners say his presence is a “slap in the face” to the people of Gaza, who are now under siege.

There will be a heavy police presence around the museum’s location in the Plantage district. Locals will be given a police escort to reach their homes from 11.30 am to 15.30 pm and tram 14 is also being re-routed, the Parool reported.

Pro-Palestine campaigners are holding a demonstration on the Waterlooplein on Sunday afternoon to protest at Herzog’s presence at the museum opening.

“We have to learn from history and if we say ‘never again’ then we really mean ‘never again’. But that is happening now in Gaza,’ said Yuval Gal, founder of the Jewish anti-Zionist organisation Erev Rav, one of the groups behind the protests.

The museum has said it is “bitter” that the opening is taking place at a time of war in Israel and Gaza. “However, we expect a dignified ceremony that will do justice to the significant national and international importance of our museum,” it said in a statement.

The opening is being performed by king Willem-Alexander.  As well as Herzog, prime minister Mark Rutte, Austrian chancellor Alexander Van der Bellen and the chairwoman of the German Bundesrat, or federal council, Manuela Schwesig will also attend. Both Austria and Germany have paid towards the cost of the museum. 

Junior welfare minister Maarten van Ooijen, who is responsible for victims of war, said the museum is being opened in extraordinary times.

However, he told the Parool, “something very special is going to happen” on Sunday. “We are going to give the Holocaust a permanent place of remembrance in the Netherlands, and that is something we have not done before.”