What really happened at the Amsterdam "pogrom"?
Did an unprovoked antisemitic “pogrom” really occur in Amsterdam? The evidence tells a different story.
According to media reports, an antisemitic pogrom occurred in Amsterdam earlier this week, as Israeli football fans were hunted and beaten in the streets for no reason other than being Jewish. Western leaders — from Biden to von der Leyen to Trudeau — all rushed to express their support, suggesting that Europe is headed straight for a repeat of the Nazi horrors of the 1930s and 40s.
This would be terrifying indeed — if only it were true. In the wake of the violence surrounding the match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, multiple accounts on X have shed light on what actually happened, revealing that the Israeli fans were not victims of an unprovoked attacks, but that the violent clashes were a reaction to provocative and aggressive behaviour by the Maccabi fans.
The incident unfolded over several days, with tensions escalating before the actual match. Reports from various sources indicate that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, knowing for their extreme anti-Arab ideology, engaged in acts that were not only confrontational but also racially charged, part of a broader display of hostility towards the local community, particularly those of Arab or Palestinian descent.
For instance, one post described how a local resident was verbally and physically assaulted by Maccabi fans, which was captured and shared widely on the platform. Another local resident explained: “Last night a group of Israeli hooligans stood under my window (Palestine poster). Screaming, banging on the door, fireworks. For the first time in my life, I was really scared in my own home”. Other posts showed that the Maccabi fans were involved in tearing down Palestinian flags from buildings in Amsterdam, an act seen as both provocative and disrespectful by local residents. These actions, combined with alleged verbal abuse and attacks directed at taxi drivers and other locals, set the stage for what would become a volatile situation. This was confirmed also by local police as well as by a Sky News report (subsequently deleted from the media organisation’s account).
Maccabi fans also chanted anti-Arab slogans, which included threats and openly genocidal language such as “Let the IDF win to fuck the Arabs” and “There are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left”. Moreover, during the match Maccabi fans jeered during a minute of silence for victims of Spain’s floods.
Thus, while Maccabi fans claimed to have been the victims of unprovoked attacks, and Western authorities and most media outlets framed these attacks as solely antisemitic violence, everything points in fact to the violence being a reaction to the brazen and racist provocations of the Maccabi supporters, which led to confrontations with local residents and other football fans. This was also confirmed by Amsterdam councilman Jazie Veldhuyzen: “They began attacking houses of people in Amsterdam with Palestinian flags, so that’s actually where the violence started”, Veldhuyzen said. “As a reaction, Amsterdammers mobilised themselves and countered the attacks that started on Wednesday by the Maccabi hooligans”.
Framing what happened as an antisemitic pogrom is thus not only shockingly misleading — which is not surprising when it comes to mainstream media-political coverage of anything Israel-related — but also politically very dangerous.
Not only does calling everything antisemitism, even events that clearly have nothing to do with it, trivialise actual antisemitism; but blatantly weaponising anti-antisemitism as a cover for blanket support for Israel — even in the face of outrageous racist behaviour such as the one exhibited by the Maccabi fans in Amsterdam — only risks intensifying genuine antisemitic sentiments.
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Thomas Fazi
Website: thomasfazi.net
Twitter: @battleforeurope
Latest book: The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green)
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.
'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.