Racial and Religious intolerance were displayed on the streets in Amsterdam on Nov.7 when Israeli soccer fans were attacked, and Palestinian flags were torn off walls. Israeli soccer fans swarmed the streets celebrating Israel’s attacks on Palestine and people exclaiming hateful chants against Arab people. People responded to this by partaking in Anti-Semitic attacks, resulting in 7 injuries and five people receiving hospital treatment.
Riots are spreading around the city with an arson attack on a tram; in a video posted online, rioters are heard yelling anti-Semitic slurs. Some citizens in Amsterdam say this issue has been brewing for the past 15-20 years due to an increase in far-right ideologies around Europe. Due to the riots, Pro-Palestinian protestors have been banned from holding demonstrations surrounding the stadium. Citizens aren’t the only people having to navigate racial intolerance as Nora Achabar, the NSC State Secretary, has resigned from her position over the comments that her colleagues made that she felt were racist. The government is trying to navigate this unexpected resignation while also dealing with the possibility of future riots.
The riots have caused many people to speak out against Jewish hate, and a narrative is being made that only Jewish people and Israelis are being targeted. Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims have also been affected by these attacks as Israelis have partaken in attacks, too, with 10 Israelis being arrested after the riots. Jewish hate has played a role in the whole situation, but many media outlets have been siding with the Israelis rather than including the attacks against non-Israeli people. People labeled the riots as “pogroms,” which is a riot against Jewish people by local non-Jewish populations. This is especially important as the days following the riot marked 86 years since “Kristallnacht,” a pogrom conducted by the Nazi party, which declared war against German and Austrian Jews. The word pogrom is attached to horrific events that have killed thousands of Jews that don’t happen anymore on the scale that they did during the Holocaust and prior. The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Heselme, called the attacks pogroms and since then has taken back her statement. When asked if she would use the word again, she said, “No, no. If I had known that it would be used this way politically and as propaganda, I don’t want anything to do with that.”
Israeli soccer fans chanting on the streets
It’s evident that there is violence being committed by both sides of this situation, but people are choosing to blame one group of people. Israeli people participated in rioting, and Pro-Palestinian people also participated in rioting. Even though Israeli people incited the attacks, the retaliation that followed also played a part in this situation as well. The events that have occurred are another example of the increase in far-right ideas in Europe, with Italy and France having issues with xenophobia, anti-immigration, and racism. The war in Gaza has played a role in the rise of hate against Arabs, Israelis, Jewish people, and Muslims in some of these situations and is the reason why riots in Amsterdam happened. The attacks of November 7th display a side of the Israeli and Palestinian war that is overlooked when talking about the effects of the war.
