Israeli fans attack pro-Palestine supporters in Amsterdam

Racist chants included, 'Kill Arabs,' and, 'Victory to the IDF'

Violence broke out in Amsterdam after Israeli fans attacked Palestinians


By Judy Cox
Friday 08 November 2024

 SOCIALIST WORKER

Israeli football fans went on a rampage in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Thursday night. They had travelled to watch a football match, but seized the chance to attack Palestine supporters.

Fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv team occupied Dam Square ahead of the game. Footage shared on social media showed the visitors shouting, “Fuck Palestine” and tearing down Palestinian flags.

Racist chants included, “Kill Arabs,” and, “Victory to the IDF.” They even chanted about how there are no schools left in Gaza.

Barbara Weenink, a Palestine supporter who lives in Amsterdam, said, “I saw the Israeli fans walking here before the match—I found it very threatening.”

Palestine activists had been banned from protesting against the outrageous presence of an Israeli team in the European football competition. Police attacked them as they tried to protest—and arrested 57.

In the stadium, the Israeli fans jeered and chanted through an official minute’s silence for the victims of the floods in the Spanish state.

After the game, fights broke out between rival football fans and Israeli fans were beaten up. Israeli supporters tried to intimidate and humiliate Amsterdam’s Arab community—but the locals fought back and won.

The media spun it as a story of antisemitism and unprovoked violence against Jews. Some politicians have even claimed that the fights were really pogroms—murderous assaults on Jews in eastern Europe in the early 20th century.

Israel’s security minister, the far right Ben-Gvir, wrote on X, “Fans who went to see a football game encountered antisemitism and were attacked with unimaginable cruelty just because of their Jewishness and Israeliness.”

Israeli president Isaac Herzog compared the fight to the Palestinian resistance’s counter attack on 7 October 2023. He said, “We see with horror this morning the shocking images and videos that since October 7, we had hoped never to see again. An antisemitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam.”

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu even promised to send two rescue planes to Amsterdam to save the Israeli fans. He quickly dumped the idea, leaving them to make their own way back to Israel.

The far right has seized on this distorted story to grab more support for their racism. Geert Wilders leads the Freedom party which is now the largest in the Dutch governing coalition. Wilders, who is well known for his anti-Muslim racism, said Dutch authorities “will be held accountable for their failure to protect” Israeli citizens.

To talk of antisemitism and pogroms of Jews in Amsterdam is nonsense. The fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv came to Amsterdam looking to beat up Arabs and Palestinians supporters.

Arabs in Amsterdam were right to fight back—self-defence is no offense.