“They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause.”

Psalm 109:3

Pogrom in Amsterdam by “Pro-Palestinians”

 

November 8, 2024

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

Reprinted from Israel 365 News

 

Ten Israelis were hospitalized and three are missing after violence broke out after a soccer match between AFC Ajax and  Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Israel fans reported being attacked by Arabic-speaking gangs after the game. Some reported being ambushed outside the stadium and at their hotels by violent mobs. Israelis reported being harassed and hunted by the rioters for hours with little effective intervention by local police. Footage on social media showed attackers chasing Israelis, beating them and at times kicking them while on the ground. Eye witnesses said the attacks included car-ramming, stabbing and beatings in several locations around the city including attempts to break into hotels where Israeli fans were staying.

Local Muslims and Arabs reportedly carried out the attacks. Many of the attackers were masked and some carried Palestinian flags. An estimated 140,000 Muslims reside in the capital where they form around 17 percent of the population. Half of these Muslims are predominantly Arabic and Berber-speaking communities from the Maghreb region, Egypt and the Middle East. Turks make up 25 percent of the Muslim population in Amsterdam.

“They were waiting in groups at every corner and the moment they identified Jews they chased them,” one Israeli told Kan News.

WARNING: Videos show disturbing violence

On Friday, Israel’s national security council called on Israelis visiting Amsterdam to return to Israel as soon as possible. Israel’s Foreign Ministry warned Israelis in Amsterdam to shelter in place in their hotels until they can leave, and if they went outside, to avoid wearing any Jewish or Israeli markings.

The Israeli government said it held Dutch authorities responsible for the safety of its citizens. The Israeli government sent two IDF cargo planes to conduct a rescue mission in coordination with the Dutch government. The mission will include medical and rescue teams. On Friday morning, the Israeli Foreign Ministry updated the trapped Israelis, saying local security forces had been deployed, and it was safe to go to the airport.

El Al announced that it will operate rescue flights from the Netherlands to Israel on Friday evening and Shabbat. The Israeli carrier normally does not operate on Shabbat according to Halacha (Jewish law), but a provision in the law referred to as pikuach nefesh permits profaning the sabbath to save a life. The flights will be free of charge for all passengers who had booked a return ticket from Amsterdam to Israel with El Al and all other airlines.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon denounced the violence on Twitter, describing the attack as “a pogrom.”

Dutch leader Geert Wilders, whose party is a member of the Netherlands’ government, strongly denounced the attacks, also describing them as a “pogrom.”

Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. envoy to counter antisemitism, issued a statement denouncing the attacks.

“Horrified by the attacks tonight in Amsterdam, which are terribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom,” said Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt. “I am also deeply disturbed by how long the reported attacks lasted and call on the government to conduct a thorough investigation into security force intervention and on how these despicable attacks transpired.”

“In terrible historical irony, this is happening two days before the grim anniversary of Reichspogromnacht in 1938, when Nazi-sanctioned and led pogroms against Jews erupted across the German Reich.”

It should be noted that her statement did not mention the Jewish-Israeli identity of the victims or the Arab-Muslim identity of the assailants. It should also be noted that last year, Lipstadt garnered criticism for including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), suspected of having ties with Hamas, to the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) has called the vicious attacks against Israeli football fans in the streets of Amsterdam last night a new Kristallnacht.

“Exactly 86 years after Kristallnacht, when Nazis, along with ordinary Germans hunted Jews through the streets of Europe, we see their ideological heirs rampaging through the streets of Amsterdam once again seeking to spill Jewish blood,” said CEO of CAM Sacha Roytman Dratwa. “Thousands of Islamists, who are today’s neo-Nazis in ideology and action, in a clearly premeditated and organized fashion, targeted Jews in what feels to many as a loud echo from history.”

“The difference today is that Jews have the State of Israel as their sanctuary. However, Europe should remember this: Jews won’t wait around like they did in ’39. They’ll leave, leaving you to deal with the extremism that has been allowed to fester. As they said over eight decades ago, first they came for the Jews, but it clearly did not end there. It’s time for Europe to get its act together and deal with the new Nazis as it did the old ones.”

Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor,  the founder and executive director of CyberWell, an international nonprofit organization focused on combatting the growing wave of online antisemitism and Jew hatred being spread through social media, responded to the incident:

“When radicals targeted the opening of the first dedicated Dutch Holocaust Museum in March of this year with violence and destruction of property, the writing was on the wall,” Montemayor said. “But it was ignored, and disregarded by Holland’s government and security forces as a “response” to the war in Gaza.”

“Today, the vicious attack in Amsterdam against Israeli football fans is nothing short of an antisemitic pogrom. And just before the eve of Kristallnacht, no less.”

“The erroneous and perilous tolerance of violent, pro-terror Jew-hatred must end across our digital and physical spaces immediately. European leadership needs to commit to fighting Jew-hatred with significant and robust action and enforcement of law – not apologies.”

The IDF says it is barring soldiers from flying to the Netherlands until further notice.

Tensions were high before the match, leading mayor Femke Halsema to ban a pro-Palestine demonstration that was scheduled to take place next to the Johan Cruijff arena. Several parts of the city center were declared “risk” zones, giving police the right to stop and search people. The city council discussed the possibility of banning Israeli fans due to the security risk.