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On Thursday, November 7, after a soccer match between the Israeli and Dutch teams, Israeli fans were chased, run over with cars, beaten, and harassed through the streets of Amsterdam. Victims were reportedly stopped on the street and asked to produce passports and/or state whether they were Jewish.
Initial reporting on the attack suggested that the cause was Israeli hooliganism prior to or during the soccer match. Indeed, some Israeli fans tore Palestinian flags from nearby buildings and shouted anti-Arab slogans during the game. It is important to note, however, that soccer is a notoriously raucous game that is no stranger to denigrating slogans. Israeli teams and Jewish players of other teams regularly receive verbal abuse in the form of antisemitic chants, often invoking themes from the Holocaust. Further investigations into the November 7th attack, however, prove this claim of Israeli fan provocation to be an untenable argument. Moreover, even if accurate, standard football fanaticism in no way justifies this level of violence.
Proximate investigations into the attack revealed several WhatsApp and Telegram group chats, primarily among taxi/Uber drivers, which showed that the attacks were planned prior to Israeli fans even arriving in Amsterdam. A premeditated attack, then, indicates that this violence was spurred by anti-Zionist or antisemitic anger within the Netherlands. Many analysts are comparing November 7th to Kristallnacht, the 1938 attack against Jews in Austria which bore strikingly similar tactics. It bears asking the question of how far radicalism and antisemitism has spread within Europe and whether there is sufficient will to halt it.
The Lead Up
Before the game on Thursday, city officials considered canceling the match. Israeli intelligence officials had warned their Dutch counterparts of potential for unrest or violence prior to the game, indicating that there was a “flare up” of calls by pro-Palestine groups on social media to hold a “violent protest” at the game. Despite Israel’s request for increased security for its citizens, Dutch officials appear to have neglected this request.
Instead of canceling the match, officials decided to open the stadium early and let Israeli fans wait there instead of in the city. Video footage showed Israeli fans singing anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian songs (in Hebrew) before the riots, and Amsterdam city officials said that 10 Israelis had been arrested even before the game.
The tension escalated to violence after the match, when masked men roamed the streets of the city shouting anti-semitic slogans demanding that people show them their passports, and attacking if they proved to be Jewish or Israeli. Attackers were primarily migrants to the Netherlands, often from Middle Eastern nations.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema realized that this incident had the makings of an international incident and contacted the Dutch prime minister on Friday, but he was unavailable. She also contacted the Israeli ambassador in the Netherlands, and Israel deployed medical and rescue planes to help Israelis stuck in Amsterdam.
Dutch Government and Police Response
According to the post-mortem report, after the game on Thursday, groups of men on scooters initiated “hit-and-run” attacks on Jews. Until that point, the situation had been under control. But once the hit-and-runs started, police found themselves overwhelmed, especially because it seems that around that time, social media calls arose calling on sympathizers to join a “Jew hunt.” In fact, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that the attacks against Israelis were planned and organized in a Telegram group.
After that, Dutch police prevented many incidents but struggled to track down the attackers who were wreaking havoc across the city. Around 1 am, the police decided to round up Israelis and take them to hotels. In total, 62 people were arrested, including the 10 Israelis arrested before the match.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the violence against Israelis and Jews but seemed to blame the visiting Israelis for raising tensions with their rowdy behavior. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof expressly said, “There is a big difference between destroying things and hunting Jews.”
Following the incidents, police have increased their presence and implemented a week-long ban on protests, but a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators ignored the ban and more than 50 were arrested in Amsterdam on Sunday.
The following Monday, clashes broke out once again, with social media videos showing people shouting antisemitic slurs as they vandalized a tram and set it aflame. Also on Monday, attackers pulled a cyclist off his bike and beat him, while others threw stones at responding officers. Dutch authorities continue to remain on high alert.
Extremism and Antisemitism in Europe
Europe is no stranger to extremism. Indeed, over the past 30 years, Europe has been a prime target for both attacks and recruitment by terrorist groups. France alone has sustained approximately 30 terror attacks in the last decade. Germany has suspended several organizations for supporting “radical Islamist goals.” The UK has had several incidents of citizens defecting to join ISIS (famously, Shamima Begum).
Those on the right often use this trend to advocate for closed borders, stricter sanctions, and religious conservatism. The left often views these same policies as an abuse of power against a minority. However, the centrist view is worth analyzing, and perhaps, adopting.
The culturalist arguments of the right are essentially ineffectual in today’s society, as the west is steeped in identity politics. Its racist undertones mask the need for genuine discussion and reform so as to safeguard one’s population from the threat of terrorism and extremist ideologies writ large. On the other hand, the left’s strict adherence to identity politics subordinates genuine security threats that must take precedence. The reality is that Europe has a problem controlling extremism. The solution is not to cow to extremists’ demands but to analyze why their recruitment works in the first place and return to core national values.
Pervasive antisemitism has long been said to be a signal for the collapse of societies. Jews have been repeatedly targeted for hundreds of years, by the Romans, the British, the Germans, imperial Spain, Iran, Eastern Europe, and most Middle Eastern nations. In the US, Jews are the most frequently targeted minority, according to the ADL. Indeed, antisemitism comes from the right and left, Neo-Nazis and Islamists, meaning that neither end of the political spectrum is equipped to counter the extremism that has plagued societies for millenia. Instead, centrist policies which focus on a return to normalcy, free speech, equal rights, and effective law enforcement possess the ability to reorient western societies. In terms of national security, this holds great appeal.
Particularly for a western democracy, if the majority holds extremist politics, the government may feel beholden to such policies, risking the country’s resources, manpower, and international standing for fear of insulting some sect of citizens. Rather, it is the duty of western governments to retain their centrism and address rising extremism among their populations with a firm hand.
The lawless violence of Amsterdam cannot and should not be allowed to repeat itself. Without a firm stance of curbing antisemitism, and violent extremism as a whole, these attacks will likely continue to threaten not only individuals but the future of these states.