All the mainstream news headlines are screaming about the “anti-Semitic attacks” on Israeli soccer fans in the streets of Amsterdam on Nov. 7: “Mobs chanted anti-Israel slogans and proudly shared videos of kicking, beating and running over Israeli citizens.”

MEMORIES OF KRISTALLNACHT

These attacks are rightly decried by the authorities, who point out the extreme fear generated throughout the Dutch population, especially the Jewish community, a fear heightened by the remembrance of Kristallnacht (“Broken Glass Night”) 86 years ago in Germany. That is when Hitler ordered German citizens to destroy Jewish-owned stores throughout the country.

Kristallnacht signaled the beginning of the Holocaust. Of 142,000 Dutch Jews who were sent to Hitler’s concentration camps, only 5,200 (4%) survived to return home.

However, the media was slow to even mention what had led up to the attacks. A Muslim-led protest, as at many soccer games in West European Cities, had been planned against the war on Gaza, and a heavy police presence separated the protesters from the Israelis.

ISRAELIS’ PROVOCATIONS

Even less emphasized was the hooliganism of the Israeli fans. Days before the match they had vandalized a taxi and threatened the driver. Early reports said Israelis shouted anti-Arab slogans and burned a Palestinian flag. But it took three days to report that the cruelty of their chants observed no boundaries and they yelled: “Why is there no school in Gaza? There are no children left.”

Netanyahu warned the fans to stay off the streets, and rushed three El-Al planes, which normally do not fly on the Sabbath, to bring them home. The Dutch Prime Minister and Mayor of Amsterdam made abject apologies, promised an investigation and punishment of the rioters, and banned protests over the next weekend.

Did Netanyahu warn the Israeli fans that they were guests in another country? Did he chastise them for rude, provocative and gratuitously cruel behavior? Did he order them to apologize to the citizens of Amsterdam, a diverse city where people from the world over mix and mingle? How about ordering them to take up a collection to compensate the taxi driver? Probably not, because his genocidal war in Gaza gave them a role model and a green light, to be a microcosm of U.S.-funded Israeli imperialism.

Like too much of the world, the Netherlands’ recent election gave Geert Wilders’ far-right party the largest number of representatives in the Dutch parliament. To avoid capitulation to a far-right society, everyone needs to expose and resist antisemitism and Islamophobia and fight against repression of freedom of speech and protest.

–Susan Van Gelder