The media in Europe were filled this morning with reports mentioning the fact that “Jews were hunted with clubs” in Central Europe and quoting Israeli statements regarding a “pogrom” that took place among Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in the city. Social networks show chases on the streets of Amsterdam after Israel fans, including severe violence against those who are caught. In one of them, the authenticity of which cannot be verified yet, it seems that one of the fans was forced under threats to shout Free Palestine after unknown people threw him into a canal in the city. In another incident, a Ukrainian soccer fan was violently interrogated in the street to find out if he was Israeli and was forced to show an ID.
Amsterdam is a stronghold of anti-Israel protests that have turned violent in the past year. Pro-Palestinian activists, many of them immigrants or children of immigrants from the Middle East and Asia or young people from the radical left, took over train stations, public buildings, blocked major roads in the name of the struggle “for Palestine”. Violent clashes with the police took place at the University of Amsterdam after extremist activists organized a “score-free zone” on public space. Dozens of people were injured when the police evacuated the area. Public buildings were vandalized with red paint in protest of the war in Gaza.
The mobs of Middle Eastern migrants hunting Jews in Amsterdam tonight are interrogating people they meet on the streets
If ppl don’t know Dutch or Arabic, they are attacked
This Ukrainian tourist was suspected of being Jewish and was forced to show his ID to be allowed to leave pic.twitter.com/TkJbDGGwVC
– Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) November 8, 2024
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof tried to convey calm, saying that “now things are calm”. The police said that no ambulances were called during the events, but this contradicts the testimonies of Israeli fans. The Dutch media reported with some surprise that Israel was “sending two rescue planes” to Amsterdam. 57 people were arrested during the riots, police reported.
The Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who heads the Freedom Party, wrote on the X social network that “It looks like a Jew hunt in Amsterdam. The multicultural filth that attacked the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans on our streets must be stopped and deported. I am ashamed that this could happen in the Netherlands, it is unacceptable Completely acceptable.”
Riots against Israelis in Amsterdam / Photo: Reuters, X/iAnnet
Events that can take place in most major European cities
In Europe and Israel are shocked, but in fact, events like the one that happened last night in Amsterdam can now happen in most of the main European cities. An Israeli wearing a Maccabi Tel Aviv scarf was attacked in Berlin on Tuesday, after a series of violent incidents over the past year. The question is not whether there is potential for violence, but only how the local police protect Israelis who demonstrate their identity in public, such as sports fans or tourists. Pro-Palestinian activists, a German police report warned last month, are becoming more radical and violent as time goes on.
According to reports in the Dutch media, the pro-Palestinian activists first asked to demonstrate against Israel in front of the stadium where yesterday’s match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv took place and were rejected, and the police were deployed in large forces to protect them around the stadium. However, in what appears to be a coordinated operation to “hunt down” and attack Israeli fans in the city center, groups of young men, many of them waving the Palestinian flag or wearing hoods, located the fans upon their arrival and violently attacked them. One of the centers of violence was Dam square in the center of the city.
Video clips were also published on social networks in which Maccabi Tel Aviv fans are seen chanting racist slogans against Arabs as they leave the Johan Cruyff Stadium. In another video circulated among pro-Palestinian activists, supporters are seen trying to tear down a Palestinian flag hanging outside an apartment in the city.
In any case, this is a Dutch, and possibly Israeli, security failure regarding an event whose explosive potential is known in advance. But it is also a testimony to the situation in the streets of the biggest cities in Europe these days. The political systems can express complex positions towards Israel’s right to defend itself. The Eiffel Tower or the Brandenburg Gate can be lit up in Israel’s colors, but there is a large and radical group of violent rioters who seek to harm Israelis and Jews at any cost. Yesterday they got their chance.
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