Chaos broke out after a soccer match in Amsterdam, Netherlands between Israeli soccer fans and pro-Palestinian supporters.
Dutch soccer club Ajax and Israeli squad Maccabi Tel Aviv were playing a Europa League match on Thursday night, which Ajax won 5-0. After the game, some of the Israel-native fans were making their way back to their hotels when they were ambushed by an organized group of protestors who were shouting “Free Palestine.” After the skirmish ensued, 10 people were hospitalized and three more were unable to get in contact with their families.
Some horrifying "just anti-Zionism" in Amsterdam tonight as Israeli soccer fans are lynched by huge pro-Palestine mobs. Where are the police?! pic.twitter.com/HMwQgCwJMi
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) November 8, 2024
Now before you think this was some random and unprovoked attack, let me provide you a bit of context. Before the match started, these Israeli fans were chanting “Death to Arabs” and destroyed Palestinian flags before heading into the game, according to CBS News. It doesn't make the Palestinian attacks justifiable, but it also sheds more light on the story.
Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders condemned the Palestinian’s actions, characterizing it as an organized attack. He specifically used the word “Pogrom,” which is a targeted attack on a minority group based on their ethnicity or religion.
Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable. https://t.co/Ju54TO27Ks
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) November 8, 2024
Related: No Service for Jews! Pro-Hamas Coffee House Kicks Out Jewish Man
A pogrom in the streets of #Amsterdam.
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) November 8, 2024
We have become the Gaza of Europe.
Muslims with Palestinian flags hunting down Jews.
I will NOT accept that. NEVER.
The authorities will be held accountable for their failure to protect the Israeli citizens.
Never again.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, who is the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism (SEAS), also condemned the attacks on X.
“Horrified by the attacks tonight in Amsterdam, which are terribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom," she wrote. "I am also deeply disturbed by how long the reported attacks lasted and call on the government to conduct a thorough investigation into security force intervention and on how these despicable attacks transpired,” she wrote. “In terrible historical irony, this is happening two days before the grim anniversary of Reichspogromnacht in 1938, when Nazi-sanctioned and led pogroms against Jews erupted across the German Reich.”
Soccer fans often cause a lot of chaos after the games are finished, but this is a different level of conflict.
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CNN's Scott Jennings: "I'm interpreting the results tonight as the revenge of just the regular old working class American, the anonymous American who has been crushed, insulted, condescended to. They're not garbage. They're not Nazis." https://t.co/28oTQjRrOp
— MRCTV (@mrctv) November 8, 2024