The Reality of the Zionist Outrage in Amsterdam

A lot has been said and written in international corporate media about the disturbances in Amsterdam before and after the soccer game between the Israeli club, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam on November 7.

Most reports leave out or downplay the violence and racism that the Israeli hooligans committed and focus solely on the counterattacks by Amsterdam youth and Amsterdam cab-drivers. They don’t shy away from spreading outright lies. The BBC even used footage of Israeli hooligans assaulting a Dutch person and claimed that it was an Israeli being attacked.

Dutch politicians follow the same line. They are all eager to push the lie that the counteractions against the Israeli supporters were an expression of antisemitism. Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema of the GroenLinks (GreenLeft) Party, held a press conference in which she even made a reference to the persecution of Jews during the nazi-occupation of the Netherlands.

“Yesterday there was an outburst of antisemitism such as we had hoped to see no more in Amsterdam,” she said. She asserted that the actions by the Amsterdam youth against the Israeli hooligans bring back memories of pogroms.

Geert Wilders, whose far-right Party for Freedom is leading the Dutch governing coalition, uttered similar words. He added that he will do everything in his power to expel ‘Islamic radicals’, meaning the Moroccan-Dutch youth who were prominent in the counteractions against the Israeli thugs. Both Wilders and prime minister Dick Schoof spoke with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone. Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, has flown to Holland to discuss the incidents with his Dutch counterparts.

It is clear that Israel and the far-right Dutch government are trying to use the disturbances to weaponize a fake tale of antisemitism and move public opinion towards more sympathy with Israel. Dutch public support for Israel has always been quite strong but has eroded last year because of the genocide in Gaza. The Dutch government in contrast is trying to do everything possible to support the Netanyahu government in its campaign to exterminate the Palestinian people. Even after losing a court case against sending military equipment to Israel it is still looking for ways to get the equipment to the apartheid state.

Before going into what happened around the soccer match it is important to mention how hypocritical it is that an Israeli club is participating in an international soccer league and allowed to play in Amsterdam. While there is an international sports (and cultural) ban against Russia because of the war in Ukraine, there is no such thing against Israel, while that country is currently committing genocide against the Palestinian people

Furthermore, Maccabi Tel Aviv is a club that openly celebrates the genocide. On its social media platforms there are many posts cheering Israeli soldiers committing their crimes in Gaza. There are also pictures of soldiers posing with Maccabi scarfs standing before buildings they just destroyed.

Of course this is not an exception. The whole of Israeli society is in a genocidal mood.

What really happened in Amsterdam?

The supporters of this genocide-celebrating club arrived in Amsterdam the day before the game. They went into town and immediately started running amok. Video footage shows them pulling down Palestinian flags from houses, scaring residents, burning the flags and kicking in windows. All this while Dutch police were driving by and doing nothing.

A woman from Amsterdam wrote on X: “Last night a group of Israeli hooligans were gathering beneath my window with a pro-Palestine poster. They were shouting, banging on my door, setting off fireworks. For the first time in my life I was afraid in my own house.”

The hooligans also attacked people in the street who looked Arab or were wearing Palestinian symbols.  They also hit a taxi with a steel chain and assaulted the driver. This triggered a counteraction by cabdrivers who forced the Israelis into a casino during which one hooligan ended up in a canal.  The cabdrivers pulled him out but only after they made him yell “Free Palestine.”

Next day the Maccabi supporters gathered in central Amsterdam waving Israeli flags, shouting “Death to Arabs” and other genocidal and racist slogans. They were also wearing banners with pictures of IDF soldiers and plastering the Dam, which is the central square in Amsterdam, with the same pictures of IDF soldiers. It is important to mention that all Israelis join the IDF at age 18 so most of the Maccabi supporters will have taken part in oppressing, occupying and possibly killing Palestinians. According to the Jerusalem Post there were soldiers among the supporters who had just served in the genocide in Gaza. The same paper also mentioned that there were Mossad agents traveling with the supporters.

During the day the atmosphere in town became more and more tense and threatening. On pro-Palestine WhatsApp groups people warned each other not to go into town alone wearing a keffiyeh or other pro-Palestine symbols.

Then the police escorted the Maccabi fans to the stadium. Again, they were shouting racist and genocidal slogans and again the police did nothing. There were anti-genocide protests planned near the stadium but they were banned by the mayor. A protest took place at another place.

Before the game started people were asked to keep a minute of silence for the victims of the floods in Spain. The Maccabi supporters completely ignored this request and started shouting and singing. Why? Because Spain has recognized Palestine and takes a bit more of a critical stance against the Israeli genocide than most Western countries. The song they were singing is the one that they also sang when they arrived back in Israel: “There are no schools in Gaza, because we killed all the kids.”

After the game the supporters went back to town and started another rampage. This is nowhere to be found in any mainstream media report. But a popular teenage video blogger, who goes by the name of Bender followed the unfolding events and showed what happened. His 17-minute-long report can be seen here.

In military fashion hundreds of Israeli supporters came together, formed a tight group, picked up steel pipes and other material from a building site and started to attack people. You can hear people screaming while running away.

This is very much in contrast to media reports that speak of innocent supporters that were attacked while trying to reach their hotel. It very much looks an organized provocation designed to produce a reaction.

And that reaction came. After two days of genocide glorification in the streets of Amsterdam and violence against people with a migrant background or with visible pro-Palestinian symbols, all tolerated by Dutch police, Amsterdam youth on their scooters attacked the Israeli supporters. Some of the supporters suffered minor injuries. And that is what made all the headlines and spurred all the authorities into action.

Up to now they seem to be succeeding in spreading the lie that this was an antisemitic outburst, a ‘pogrom’ etc. But the real events are becoming more clear as people and outlets publish facts that contradict the official narrative.

Meanwhile the pro-Palestine movement is not backing down. Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema has banned all demonstrations for the weekend but a wide coalition of pro-Palestine groups have called for an emergency protest in Amsterdam on Sunday.

The rally call says:

We are outraged by the framing of events of 7 November as antisemitic attacks and the subsequent draconian ban on protesting this weekend.

We will not let media and politicians who continue to enable the genocide in Gaza to control the narrative. We refuse to let the charge of antisemitism be weaponized to suppress Palestinian resistance.

Harry O is an analyst in The Netherlands.