A reported increase in anti-Semitism and harassment in Amsterdam has Dutch authorities considering an unusual solution: using "decoy Jews" to fight hate crimes. Police officers would go undercover in yarmulkes, roaming the streets in Semitic-drag to suss out haters and harassers.

Officials haven't decided whether they'll put the decoy plan into action yet, but it is under consideration by both Holland's justice minister and the acting mayor of Amsterdam. Jewish advocacy groups say something needs to be done. In a statement released today, the Center for Information and Documentation Israel said, "For ten years now Jews who are recognizable as such from their clothing can't walk peacefully on the street…The perpetrators of this kind of incident almost always get away unpunished."

Last week, a Jewish broadcasting company caught and aired one example of harassment on television. A Rabbi and two youths in yarmulkes were outfitted with a hidden camera as they walked through a primarily Moroccan neighborhood in Amsterdam. The camera caught them being subjected to a range of insults, including a Nazi salute. Between 2008 and 2009, the number of anti-Semitic discrimination cases in Amsterdam more than doubled, from 17 to 41, according to Holland's anti-discrimination bureau.

While alternative measures are also under consideration, the country's justice measure makes the interesting point that, "It would be impossible to say that wearing a yarmulke amounts to entrapment."