There's no excuse for the Amsterdam pogrom

Some Israeli fans engaged in bad behaviour, but they did not deserve to be hunted down in the streets and violently assaulted

Editor’s Note: This piece that was just posted on the National Post (Canada) online is a precursor of what has become a fascinating—and longer than usual—podcast that I expect we’ll drop tomorrow. I’ve been researching and speaking to many people about the Amsterdam Pogrom and will feature interviews with three people who are either living there now or from the Netherlands. Each person offers quite profound insights into the antisemitic powder keg that Amsterdam has become. And the million-dollar question, of course, is whether this is the beginning of a raging bonfire in continental Europe or just another bad week?

We have set out the first few paragraphs below. To read the full article, please click the button below.

Among the more disturbing aspects of the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam last week was the rush to blame it on the Jews. Many in the western media determined that the Jews provoked the violence with more than a dash of their own. It was payback. The brutal “backlash” by local Muslims was understandable.

This was not antisemitism, many say, but a justifiable response by enraged Islamists, having been provoked to attack by racist Israeli soccer thugs. Not quite.

Europeans are fanatical soccer fans, and violence has long been associated with the sport. And the behaviour of some of the 3,000 Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv shouting racist anti-Arab chants is typical. There was a video of an Israeli man pulling a Palestinian flag hung from a private balcony in Amsterdam. And the alleged burning of a Palestinian flag. Classic, gutter soccer hooliganism.

Since October 7, large groups of pro-Hamas and antisemitic thugs have owned and occupied public spaces in Amsterdam, many cities in Europe and, of course, Canada. In Holland and Canada, political leaders have treated such mobs as “peaceful protests,” where the pro-Hamas throngs, they say, are exercising their “constitutional freedoms.”

Countless Israeli flags have been torn apart, burned and desecrated. This conduct is viciously antisemitic and incites hatred. As do the persistent calls to annihilate Israel and kill the “cancer Jews” (a curse that is the ultimate verbal violence in Dutch culture). That, we are told, is constitutionally protected speech.

Which is absolute bunk. Hateful incitement targeting Jews has been allowed to flourish without restraint. In fact, these violent “protesters” have been emboldened, since they face no consequences. Jew hunting has been normalized.