‘It’s a hopelessly naive report, a horrible piece of bureaucratic-speak,’ says Rabbi Meir Villegas Henriquez. He referred to as it ‘cowl for officers to not take accountability’
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(Nov. 12, 2024 / JNS) — In its first report on the mass assaults on Israeli soccer followers in Amsterdam, town’s municipality has accused them of chanting “hateful and racist songs in opposition to Arabs.”
This language, which appeared within the fifth sentence of the 12-page report printed on Monday, marked a shift from metropolis officers’ rhetoric to date, together with Mayor Femke Halsema’s assertion that “there is no such thing as a excuse” for the assaults.
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Herman Loonstein, a outstanding Dutch-Jewish lawyer, accused the municipality of victim-blaming, telling JNS that the doc means that “the Jews did it.”
The report, titled, “Violence in Amsterdam Across the Ajax-Maccabi Match,” was printed forward of a debate scheduled for Tuesday concerning the occasions of Nov. 7, when at the least 100 Arabs perpetrated a coordinated collection of assaults in opposition to Israeli soccer followers following a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the native Ajax crew.
It was the largest-scale collection of antisemitic incidents within the Netherlands because the Holocaust and one of many largest occasions of its type in Europe in current a long time.
The report’s launch coincided with a recent wave of unrest in Amsterdam that featured the torching of a tram amid antisemitic shouts about “most cancers Jews” and anti-Israel protest actions throughout Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog referred to as the Nov. 7 occasion a “pogrom,” as did many locals, together with Geert Wilders, the chief of the Netherlands’ largest political occasion and ruling coalition associate. Wilders tweeted following the tram’s torching: “First a Jew hunt, now intifada.” He has referred to as for deporting all perpetrators of the Nov. 7 assaults.
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Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof reportedly referred to as the assaults a supply of “disgrace,” as did Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who referenced the abandonment and close to annihilation of Dutch Jewry in the course of the Holocaust.
But amid intense media protection of the assaults regionally and internationally, some voices criticized the Israelis and asserted or urged that they’d instigated the violence.
The introduction of Monday’s report by the municipality reads: “On Nov. 8, the world awoke to horrible pictures from the pitch-black night time Amsterdam had skilled. 4 days later, anger and concern and disbelief are nonetheless felt. Photos of Israeli soccer followers chased, assaulted and abused. Screenshots of antisemitic messages like the decision for a ‘Jew hunt.’ Movies of hateful and racist chants in opposition to ‘Arabs.’ Of flattening and burning of a Palestinian flag and focused assaults of Jewish and Israeli followers, that includes many antisemitic statements. Almost about this, metropolis authorities declare that one occasion’s violence is rarely an excuse to extra violence. Our metropolis’s coronary heart bleeds resulting from these occasions. Amsterdam residents in every single place really feel ache.”
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“It’s a hopelessly naive report, a horrible piece of bureaucratic-speak,” Rabbi Meir Villegas Henriquez instructed JNS. He referred to as it “cowl for officers to not take accountability.”
Loonstein, the lawyer, famous that the municipality’s reference to the behaviour of Maccabi followers fails to elucidate why a whole lot of individuals on Sunday defied a ban on anti-Israel protests on the Dam, which led riot police to arrest dozens. It additionally doesn’t clarify why dozens of individuals participated in rioting on Monday night time, the place a tram was torched on 40-45 Sq., named for the victims of the Nazi occupation, he stated.
“I haven’t heard but that the Jews additionally torched the tram yesterday,” stated Loonstein.
Within the report’s timeline, Maccabi followers had been “strolling in a big group round midnight close to Dam Sq., some with sticks, and inflicting vandalism.” After that, “issues started involving small teams of rioters unfold out throughout the middle. They staged violent hit-and-run actions” in opposition to Israelis.
A number of eyewitnesses instructed JNS that teams of Arab males had been scanning town centre for Israelis systematically and never in response to any violence by Maccabi supporters that they’d witnessed. Three riot cops who had been on the streets of town centre on Thursday night time instructed the De Telegraaf day by day on Sunday that the Maccabi followers had not acted violently.
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“I completely don’t see why it’s being claimed that Maccabi followers had been out to stage confrontations, the other is true,” one officer instructed the Dutch day by day on situation of anonymity.
Amsterdam Police Chief Peter Holla on Friday stated at a press convention that Israelis had broken a taxi cab and stolen a Palestinian flag within the metropolis centre. One of many riot cops interviewed by De Telegraaf stated the flag had been hung prominently and intentionally to impress the Israelis. One other police officer stated that the circumstances surrounding an incident involving a taxi weren’t but clear.
The police report says a bunch of taxi drivers “was mobilized” and headed in direction of the Holland On line casino, the place some 400 Israelis had been current. “Police led out the Israelis to keep away from a large-scale confrontation,” the report stated. It didn’t say whether or not the taxi that was allegedly broken was a part of the “mobilization.”
Earlier within the day, footage surfaced on-line of two males trying to burn a Palestinian and a Dutch flag at a soccer stadium. Males had been chanting “Gaza is a cemetery” within the background. The handfuls of individuals within the video are sporting short-sleeved T-shirts in sunny climate and clear skies. Amsterdam was closely overcast on Nov. 7, with temperatures round 11°C (51.8°F) within the daytime.
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Footage additionally confirmed dozens of males shouting “Let the IDF win” and “F— the Arabs” in Hebrew as they entered a metro station after sundown.
Jazie Veldhuyzen, a councilman on the Metropolis Council of Amsterdam for the BIJ1 occasion, which says it promotes anti-racist insurance policies however has typically been accused of espousing antisemitism, is certainly one of a number of Dutch politicians and opinion shapers who’ve blamed the Maccabi followers for the assault in opposition to them.
“Video footage of armed Maccabi hooligans, attacking folks from Amsterdam that seem like Arabs or Muslims with metallic pipes, stones and fireworks. All below the safety of the Dutch police. Right here you could have your ‘victims,’” tweeted Veldhuyzen. He was amongst these current on the unlawful demonstration Sunday at Dam Sq.. Lucas Winnips, a senior municipal adviser, was additionally current.
On Nov. 8, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who was a pacesetter of the left-wing D66 Social gathering, was requested by a journalist at a press convention concerning the alleged provocations by Israelis. She replied: “There might be no excuse for what occurred.” Requested as to studies that the perpetrators had been all Arab or Muslim, she stated: “This is a matter that must be researched. The background and ethnicity of individuals, that’s not one thing I can touch upon proper now, nor do I need to.”
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On X, De Telegraaf journalist Wierd Duk anticipated an inversion of the narrative about Nov. 7 which might flip the Israelis from victims to perpetrators. “From this night on, there will probably be a brand new dominant narrative in media, the political echelon and public opinion,” he tweeted on Nov. 10. “The framing is that the Jews once more introduced it on themselves—on this case that Maccabi hooligans misbehaved terribly, which is true—prompting our Moroccan-Islamist road heroes to react appropriately, with just a few minor excesses right here and there.”
Police arrested 62 folks earlier than and after the assaults, however none throughout them, police officers confirmed on Sunday. Of these, 10 had been Israeli residents, 49 had been residents of the Netherlands and the residence of the remaining three was nonetheless being decided, in keeping with Monday’s report. Presently, solely 4 persons are in custody, all of them Dutch. Police or prosecutors are trying into taking authorized motion in opposition to solely 11 folks, the report stated. It didn’t say whether or not these suspects dealing with potential prosecution had been Israeli or Dutch.
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The report acknowledged that police and metropolis authorities had taken “in depth motion” to keep away from violence. It doesn’t identify any failures of their actions, stating that these could also be outlined in impartial analysis into the occasions of Nov. 7.
The doc notes that, regardless of efforts to keep away from violence, “nasty incidents occur repeatedly in Amsterdam, affecting Jews but additionally more and more Muslims, Palestinians and different minority teams.”
Within the conclusions of the report, the authors wrote: “What has occurred in current days is the results of antisemitism, hooliganism, and anger over the warfare in Israel and Palestine and different international locations within the Center East.” The report additionally stated the ethnic identities of the perpetrators will probably be appeared into within the impartial analysis of the occasions of Nov. 7.
On Monday, police in Belgium arrested six suspected copycats of the Amsterdam assaults who’re suspected of planning, utilizing instantaneous messaging, to assault ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The assaults in Amsterdam occurred on the eve of the anniversary of the Kristallnacht Nazi pogroms of 1938 within the Third Reich.
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Some victims of the Nov. 7 assaults had been made to beg for mercy on their knees and say “Free Palestine.” Others, together with at the least one girl, had been set upon by males with none verbal alternate. At the least one man jumped right into a canal to flee his attackers; one other was hit by a car. Based on studies, attackers requested to verify the passports of individuals they confronted on the road.
About 25 folks had been damage in the course of the assaults, with accidents starting from reasonable to minor.
As many as 2,000 Israelis returned to Israel on eight emergency flights out of Amsterdam over the weekend, El Al, Israel’s flag service airline, reported.
Following the Hamas-led onslaught on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which terrorists murdered some 1,200 folks and kidnapped one other 251, Israel went to warfare in opposition to Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s critics in Europe have accused it of genocide, together with at weekly rallies in European capitals which have featured quite a few requires violence in opposition to Israelis and Jews. A number of international locations reported an explosion in recorded antisemitic incidents. Within the Netherlands, the Middle for Info and Documentation recorded a rise of 245 per cent in antisemitic incidents in 2023 over 2022.
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