Published: 12 November 2024
Last updated: 12 November 2024
Mob violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam on Thursday night realised the deepest fears of Jewish people everywhere.
The image of Jews being hunted and beaten on the streets of Europe caught our breath, all the more so in the home city of Anne Frank, the girl who has become a symbol for the entire Holocaust.
There are many differences between what happened in Amsterdam on Thursday night and the antisemitism of historical Europe, but none of them masks the core similarity. Jews were hunted and attacked. Nothing justifies it.
Having made that point clearly, it behoves us to understand exactly what happened, its context and limitations, not to excuse or minimise it but to face it clear-eyed and to guard against its recurrence.
Following a soccer game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Amsterdam’s Ajax on Thursday night, hundreds of attackers sought out and beat Israeli Maccabi fans. Five people were hospitalised, at least one thrown into a canal, and many others injured. Dutch police detained 62 offenders, fining 40 and charging four with more serious offences.
A second wave of attacks occurred on Monday night when a tram was set on fire and rioters threw debris and shouted "Kanker Joden" ("Cancer Jews", a strong Dutch obscenity).
There is clear evidence that Thursday's attacks were premeditated. Taxi drivers held a meeting ahead of the attacks and social media messages incited others to join a “Jew Hunt”. “Tomorrow after the match at night part 2 Jew Hunt”, read one message in a WhatsApp group called Buurthuis (community centre) Palestine.
Why did these attacks happen? The factors feeding them are numerous: antisemitism within the pro-Palestine movement; violence and extremism among Muslim migrants in Europe; anger over Israel’s military actions in Gaza; tribal hatred of Muslims towards Jews; inflammatory hooliganism by Israeli Maccabi fans; the power of social media to incite; the intersection between male violence and football culture. The situation was enabled by the pragmatic failure of the Dutch police to properly manage a volatile situation, and its impact was amplified by the response of the Israeli government.
Amsterdam must be a wake-up call to guard against the dangerous slippage from legitimate political protest to polarising hate to mob violence.
Authorities across the world have been quick to condemn the attacks and articulate its resonance with Europe’s history of antisemitism. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was "horrified by the antisemitic attacks on Israeli citizens”. “I am ashamed that this happened in the Netherlands, and it is a terrible antisemitic attack, and we will not tolerate," Schoof said in a statement.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema evoked Europe’s history of mob attacks on Jews. “I understand very well that this brings back memories of pogroms," she said.
It is impossible to disentangle the Israeli and Jewish identities of the victims or the degree to which their attackers were motivated by politics or racism, tribalism or sheer mob violence.
Adi Reuben, whose nose was broken after he was kicked on the floor by a gang of about 10 people, reported that his attackers shouted “Jewish, Jewish, IDF, IDF", a clear demonstration of the conflation of Jewish identity and the Israeli military.
It is clear from one exceptional case that racial and cultural identity were key to these attacks. Druze Maccabi fan Melhem Assad protected himself and the Israelis he was with from attack by speaking loudly in Arabic. This was apparently enough to assure the attackers he was “one of them”, despite being an Israeli proudly sporting a Maccabi emblem. They were hunting Jews, not an Israeli Arab Maccabi fan.
On the other hand, just blaming “antisemitism” as a generic form of hate ignores the way political motivations and inflammatory actions by Israeli fans catalysed these attacks.
On Wednesday evening, some Israeli Maccabi fans stole and burned a Palestinian flag, and others attacked a taxi driver. A video verified by Reuters shows Maccabi fans setting off flares and chanting "Ole, ole, let the IDF win, we will fuck the Arabs”. These shameful behaviours are indicative of anti-Arab racism which exists in parts of Israeli sporting culture.
Tensions over Gaza were undoubtedly another influential factor. Polarisation over Israel-Palestine has created a tinderbox for hate and violence and the actions of Israeli fans lit a match. But that does not fully explain, and certainly in no way justifies, what happened in Amsterdam.
The broader context of this violence is a growing race war within Europe in which an underclass of mostly Muslim migrants is drawn to violence and extremism, while a populist rebound of anti-migration nationalism feeds a circle of racism and resentment.
Dutch authorities have been careful not to identify the attackers as Muslim but not all media has been so circumspect and populist nationalist politician Geert Wilders has cited “criminal Muslims” as the perpetrators and called for their deportation.
It is naïve to ignore the reality that what happened on Thursday night was mostly Muslims attacking Jews.
As for the role of the authorities, Dutch police said the violence involved men on scooters carrying out "hit and run" attacks which were difficult to prevent. Perhaps so, but it seems negligent not to have been aware of the possibility of a clash between Amsterdam’s 90,000 Muslims (12% of the city’s population) and the visiting Israeli fans, and to provide a bigger police presence to forestall it.
Fortunately, there were no deaths and only relatively minor injuries recorded, and the situation was largely brought under control. Israel’s decision to send a special El Al flight to bring home the fans was a stunt to emphasise the victimisation of its citizens, not a necessary rescue mission.
Amsterdam must be a wake-up call for governments and police the world over to guard against the dangerous slippage from legitimate political protest to polarising hate to mob violence.
RELATED STORIES
Explainer: Israeli football fans and the violence in Amsterdam: what we know (Guardian)
The trouble in the Netherlands when Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax last week horrified people around the world.
UEFA's silence on Amsterdam pogrom isn't only hypocricy. It's getting fed up with Israel (Haaretz)
European soccer's governing body UEFA has remained surprisingly quiet about the attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam and brushed aside a blatantly political 'Free Palestine' banner unfurled in Paris last week. Israelis should be concerned.
Maccabi Tel Aviv-Besiktas soccer game moved to Hungary, behind closed doors, after Amsterdam violence (Times of Israel)
The Europa League match between Besiktas and Maccabi Tel Aviv has been moved from Istanbul to Debrecen in Hungary, UEFA announces.
Comments3
J Felnan12 November at 09:41 am
In response to one of the comments: it is a false equivalence to suggest that violence against Jews in Europe or elsewhere is acceptable because of the actions of the current Israeli government. Should you face retribution on an international trip as a ‘proud Australian’ because the Australian government breaks international human rights laws with their treatment of asylum seekers? Or because of minimalist actions by respective Australian governments regarding global warming, which will result in devastation and death across the globe and huge waves of migration, should you accept the scientific research presented so far? Provocations are just that – there is no automatic right to violent response. The Guardian article referenced above refers to 2500 protest marches by Palestinian supporters which as far as i can see did not result in any violent responses from Jews or supporters of israel- an example from Reuters of the outcome of one of these protests: “AMSTERDAM, May 7 (Reuters) – Police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters as thousands marched in the Dutch capital on Tuesday, a day after riot police violently broke up an encampment at Amsterdam University. … The university said in a statement that an initially peaceful student protest which began on Monday afternoon had turned hostile, with beatings, throwing of fireworks and the burning of an Israeli flag.
The university provided a list of its Israel programmes to meet a request by student groups, but a core of the protesters were not satisfied and refused to leave.
“We deeply regret that things went the way they did. Demonstrating is permitted at the UvA, but without covered faces, barricades or an atmosphere of intimidation,” it said. (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dutch-police-end-pro-palestinian-demonstration-amsterdam-university-2024-05-07/ )
Joseph Silver12 November at 06:47 am
Israel’s decision to send a special El Al flight to bring home the fans was a stunt? I’m sure the Israelis wanting to get out of Amsterdam quickly and safely would disagree with your misguided cynicism.
Wesley Parish12 November at 06:25 am
I think we should label the Maccabi fans chanting their anti-Arab chant as “Jewish-Israeli tribalism”. And I think the knee-jerk reaction of the European press and govts labelling it “antisemitism” didn’t help any. I think Israel’s widely-known abuses towards Palestinians is more than enough incitement – so if we are to halt antisemitic incitement, we should first require it from the Israeli govt, and in particular their claim to represent all Jews worldwide.