Anti-Semitic Pogrom in Amsterdam
On November 7th, in the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, a Europa League football match took place between Maccabi (Tel Aviv) and the local team Ajax. After the match, Israeli fans were subjected to an organized, large-scale attack by pro-Palestinian extremists.
Witnesses and victims report that the attackers were organized into groups that attacked, pursued, and brutally beat Israelis in the streets, shouting pro-Palestinian slogans. They knew in which hotels the Israelis were staying and tried to break into them. All this indicates that it was not a clash of football fans, as some media tried to present, but a carefully planned pogrom. The attackers coordinated their actions through social networks. Despite warnings of possible incidents, the Dutch police showed helplessness.
In light of the recently revealed facts that some Dutch police officers openly express their unwillingness to guard Jewish sites, citing moral principles, the question arises: are the position of these police officers and the pogrom that occurred links in the same chain, or, in other words, two sides of the same coin, the name of which is antisemitism? Why do antisemitic incidents continue to be silenced, despite loud declarations of fighting antisemitism? Are European countries finally ready to move from words to actions to guarantee the safety of Jewish communities and Israelis and to truly confront this growing threat?
Symbolically, this happened on the eve of the date of Kristallnacht, which took place from November 9 to 10, 1938, and marked the beginning of the most massive persecution of Jews in human history.