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Rob Kay's avatar

To be fair, some British media did cover exactly these points, and we all know that football fans are not angels. I'm a soccer fan myself in Glasgow, and we are used to such flashpoints. Religious and national rivalries, often in the same city, fuelled by booze and testosterone. The BIG question we need to ask is why the hell is Israel, a Middle Eastern country, allowed to take part in a EUROPEAN championship anyway> Same with the Eurovision song contest etc etc etc.

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jbnn's avatar

'local community, particularly those of Arab or Palestinian descent'

Cute.

Having lived my whole life in Mokum (Jiddisch slang for A'dam) and having experienced all the stages of Nothern African immigration i consider the above text rather one sided (like Al Jazeera's).

No doubt football fans / hooligans sought confrontation(s). But it's mainly Moroccan hoodlums who lead the Gaza 'protests' and who were involved in the Maccabi riots.

Historically (by now) Moroccan immigrants (and the 2nd and 3nd generations - worse 'integrated' than the first but obviously that's the racist Dutch fault) also lead the NL crime statistics and have been doing so for decades - basically from the moment of entry.

The cultural divergence led to confrontations that were no doubt 'remarkable' for Dutch progressives. As even progressive newspapers wrote in the late 70s / early 80s of Moroccan men approaching NL women on the street or a children's play ground; 'hey, wanna fuck?' These days those papers of course subscribe to a wholly different gospel and curb reality as much as possible (same for climate, UA etc).

Our Moroccan 20 somethings don't need foreign visitors to produce riots. Police 'injustice', football results, internal rivalries (we now have more street bombings than the Swedes or Danes, check out 'Rotterdam + bombs') suffice.

When criticized the Moroccan 'community' shells up and produces indignance at best, violence at worst.

To test contemporary ethnic chemistry: on your next visit put on a kippah or a scarf and see which is more comfortable. Don't forget to make your way out of the city center where young academically credentialed tourists stand in long lines to buy cookies and soopies. As TikTok is their guide.

PS. As the University of Amsterdam is the center of 'resistance' (a collection of white studens and masked Muslim ie Moroccan allies who produce most of the violence and verbal aggression) it produced, demanded by the protesters/rioters who want the UVA to 'divest' from Jewish money, the Netherlands' first Jew-list (Israeli companies tied to the UVA) since 40/45.

A little bit too sinister for some and representative of the general lack of backbone of university admins.

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