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Fox News’ Matt Finn on the details of an attack on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
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JERUSALEM – On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the worst antisemitic pogrom against Jews of this century in Europe.
Netanyahu directed his blistering remarks at the violent antisemitic mob attack against Israelis that unfolded in the Dutch city of Amsterdam on Thursday. “We will never allow the atrocities of history to recur. We will never capitulate to antisemitism or terrorism,” he said.
He added, “A clear line connects the two antisemitic attacks against Israel that we have seen recently on Dutch soil: The reprehensible legal assault against the State of Israel at the International Court in The Hague, and the violent assault against Israeli citizens on the streets of Amsterdam. In both cases, there was dangerous antisemitism, the goal of which was to render helpless the Jews and their state, to deny our state the right of self-defense and to deny our citizens their very right to life.
“Yesterday we marked Kristallnacht … It was a brutal and violent assault against Jews just because they were Jews. Unfortunately, in recent days we saw pictures that recalled that night. On the streets of Amsterdam, antisemitic rioters attacked Jews, Israeli citizens, just because they were Jews.”
ISRAELI SOCCER FANS TARGETED IN WAVE OF VIOLENCE IN AMSTERDAM
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at the IDF Officers Course Graduation Ceremony, at IDF Training Base. (Ma’ayan Toaf, Israel Government Press Office)
Netanyahu warned that, “Attacks of this kind threaten not only Israel but endanger the entire world. We have learned something from history: Wild attacks that start against Jews, never end with the Jews. In the end, they spread to all of society, and pass from country to country until they burn all of humanity. Therefore, I expect and demand that every responsible government take strong, vigorous, clear and urgent action.”
Adding to the anger against Dutch authorities, the leader of the Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, blasted leaders in Amsterdam for failing to arrest the perpetrators.
Writing on X yesterday he said, “I am speechless. Amsterdam Police just confirmed that NO ONE has been arrested during the Islamic Jewhunt in Amsterdam on Thursday night. All arrests have been made before and during the soccer match and NOT during the pogrom.”
The Dutch politician urged that Amsterdam’s left-wing mayor Femke Halsema resign straight away.
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Halsema, who comes from the Dutch Green party, called the violence “an eruption of antisemitism that we had hoped never again to see in Amsterdam,” according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile new information has emerged about the highly organized antisemitic attacks on Jews in a city where Nazi collaborators infamously abandoned the German Jewish adolescent Anne Frank, who was in hiding, to the Nazis during World War Two.
The Holland Casino in Amsterdam reported that after Israelis fled into the casino for refuge, a security guard who worked for the casino “had indeed sent messages in the app group” that was looking to harm the Israelis.
According to Holland Casino’s statement, “Measures were promptly taken, and the employer was informed that this person is no longer welcome at Holland Casino. Employees of Holland Casino or those of companies hired by Holland Casino must prioritize the interests of Holland Casino, our guests and our staff. This did not happen in this case. Moreover, there is no place within Holland Casino for any form of violence, discrimination or antisemitism.”
Israeli football supporters were reportedly attacked by groups of local Arabs near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. (X/iAnnet/via Reuter)
The Israeli news agency TPS-IL reported that the Rabbi and volunteers from the Chabad House in Amsterdam and an Israeli Druze man had played a role in aiding the victims.
“The night before the game, there were skirmishes between Israeli fans and local Arabs. So when we started to hear news about the confrontation after the game, we first did not realize the scope of what was happening,” Rabbi Dovi Pinkovitch, head of the Chabad House in the center of Amsterdam, told TPS-IL.
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The rabbi mobilized local Jews and Israelis living in Amsterdam to assist Israelis trapped in the streets, getting them safely to hotels. “There were cases when local taxis took the Israelis towards the center of the clashes instead of bringing them to safety, so we understood we need to help. The volunteers, in their private cars, worked all night long to get hundreds of Israelis to the hotels,”
An Israeli Druze named Melchem Assad gave vital early warnings to Israelis about the violent assaults taking place. As he was exiting the train on his way from the game to the hotel, he noticed a group of men speaking Arabic about beating those wearing a blue scarf and speaking Hebrew. So he returned to the train station and ordered the arriving groups of Israelis to take off the Maccabi Tel Aviv symbols, disperse and not speak Hebrew.
Assad told TPS-IL that by his estimation, he managed to help at least a hundred and fifty Israelis. “I have a baby boy at home and my heart was beating hard as I was approaching that group. But I am an Israeli, and I knew I had nothing to do but to help if I could.”
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Leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders speaks to the press after a meeting with the Speaker of the House at the House of Representatives in The Hague, on November 24, 2023. After his shock election win, far-right Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders on Friday kicked off the formal process of building a government coalition, battling to convince reluctant rivals to serve under him as premier. (Sem van der Wal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the Times of Israel, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands told the Israeli president in a readout that “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
Amsterdam’s population is roughly 920,000 people, with about 20,000 Jews. Prior to the Holocaust, 80,000 Jews lived in Amsterdam. A total of 40,000 Jews live in the Netherlands. There are roughly one million Muslims in the northern European country, and 90,000 Muslims reside in Amsterdam.
Wim Kortenoeven, a former Dutch MP in Wilders’ party and a Middle East expert told Fox News Digital that “The Dutch police forces have been Islamized to the extent that the Muslims cops now feel confident to refuse protecting Jewish institutions for reasons of ‘conscience,” he claimed.
Echoing a report in the Jerusalem Post in October quoting two Jewish police officers, Kortenoeven noted, “Only last month this came into the open with Jewish cops in Amsterdam blowing the whistle about that, warning in the media that Jewish targets under threat of terrorist attack may therefore not be protected. They were proven right this weekend when over a thousand extra police were not willing to effectively protect Jewish Israeli football under attack from Muslim mobs.”
Kortenoeven, who now lives in Israel, added that “Such a massive force can only deliberately be so ineffective. Witnesses and victims also testified that the police remained passive in the face of the Muslim aggressors. There were no arrests either. The arrest that were made this weekend did not involve the Arabs attacking the Jews. Meanwhile, the authorities refused to properly identify the Muslim mobs and hit teams, calling them ‘guys on scooters.’”
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In this image taken from video, police in riot gear run towards a soccer stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Thursday, Nov. 7. (RTL Nieuws via AP)
Halsema declined to note at Friday’s news conference that the alleged perpetrators were Muslim and of Moroccan origin, noted Dutch critics of Islamism. The mayor’s office said in a press release that the suspects were merely “scooter youths,” in a reference to the popular mode of city transportation used by young Dutch Arabs.
On Sunday, Fox News Digital approached the Amsterdam police department for a comment.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal, and email him at benjamin.weinthal@fox.com
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