Rioting Amsterdam – From Racist Hooliganism to Vigilante Violence to Political Hooliganism
On 8 November the news broke that the majority of victims of the Israeli attacks on Palestine are women and children. According to the U.N. Human Rights Office said nearly 70% of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children. The Office condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. This finding indicates “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality”, the U.N. rights office said in a statement.
You could have easily missed this horrible news, definitely if you are from the Netherlands, since the main news in the Netherlands (but I guess it has reached the rest of Europe, Canada, US, Israel and Palestine as well) were the violent clashes in the aftermath of the European football game between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv (5-0).
Of course, the visit of Maccabi Tel Aviv was inherently political as an umbrella organisation of mosque organizations remarked a day after the events. Not only is remarkable that, given the plausible genocide and ethnic expulsions of Palestinians, Israeli football clubs are still part of the Champion League while Russian clubs are excluded, Maccabi fans have repeatedly advocated “death to Arabs” and supported violence against Palestinians and anyone advocating freedom and human rights for Palestinians. Whereas clubs have been fined for showing so much as a Palestinian flag, FIFA and UEFA basically give Israeli clubs a free pass.
What went down (as far as we can tell now)
These violent clashes were almost immediately dubbed antisemitic by spokespersons of Israeli and other pro-zionist organisations, Dutch politicians and political commentators. Reality was more complex however with the events starting already a couple of days prior to the match when Maccabi hooligans roamed the streets. Maccabi hooligans were seen to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces the day before the match; they day of the match videos emerged of supporters chanting inflammatory anti-Arab racist slogans.
After the match it escalated further with locals indeed chasing people with an Israeli identity and with sometimes clear antisemitic intentions (based upon what I saw in the Telegram groups and footage shared with me by some rioters). However, so while anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism was as present as was antisemitism; the latter dominated the frame resulting in anti-Moroccan and anti-Muslim Islamophobic rhetoric. Alternative voices showing, for example, the violence by Maccabi hooligans were there. Definitely on social media but somehow they did not made it into mainstream media or the messages of centrist politicians.
On the contrary, one video depicting the violence perpetrated and sought by Maccabi hooligans, was reframed as a video showing violence against Maccabi supporters (One channel, the German ARD, rectified this and apologized):
Vechtpartij voor Centraal station Amsterdam #ajamac #Israel ©️iAnnet pic.twitter.com/nD08QLOIRY
— iAnnet ???? (@iAnnetnl) November 7, 2024
Can you confirm that the screenshot that German newspaper BILD uses while headlining that we‘re seeing ‘Arabs attacking Jews’rather is a Maccabi Mob that’s chasing pedestrians? Or is this a screenshot of a situation where a Dutch/Muslim mob attacked Israelis like BILD titles?thx pic.twitter.com/qTJDVut9gs
— ノーマッスク (@mukumukukao) November 9, 2024
Earlier in the week pro-Palestine activists warned each other not to wear pro-Palestine symbols as “there are hooligans in town”. This advice comes after Maccabi hooligans molested a pro-Palestine protestor at the Central Station. On Wednesday evening the first reports emerged of vandalism and violence by the Maccabi hooligans. They tear down a Palestinian flag and set it on fire and destroy the windows of a house. There is footage of hooligans beating a taxi driver with an iron chain and kicking a driver; resulting in a violent collective counter-reaction of taxi drivers. A demonstration against the violence against Palestinians was held and some protestors were arrested after illegally trying to gather at the Johan Cruyff Arena.
Before the match, Macabi fans chanted and lighted fireworks in the stadium during a minute’s silence for the victims of the floods in Valencia, Spain. After the match the hooligans return to the city only to be awaited by rioters who start chasing, attacking and kicking the hooligans. It was hit-and-run violence according to mayor Halsema directed against anyone wearing yellow (Maccabi’s colours). About 150 Maccabi supporters are said to be hosted elsewhere. The Maccabi fans describe the violence as being targeted by groups on scooters with explosions and “loud Arabic music” near and outside their hotels. In the mean time there have also been small clashes between Ajax, Maccabi and Fenerbahce (playing in the nearby city of Alkmaar) hooligans.
The next morning Israel stated it would send planes to the Netherlands to evacuate its citizens but this was denied; these planes never materialized and the fans went home on regular flights. Also reports emerged that Israelis had gone missing, that they were the victims of mass attacks with one person taking hostages. In the end, five people were injured, everyone missing was accounted for, there were no hostages and police made about 60 arrests. By that time the first reports were already calling it a pogrom, the Dutch PM and King had already responded and condemned the violence (against the Maccabi fans). Schoof returned home from a conference in Budapest and far right leader Wilders had already tweeted about “Jew hunt”, “pogrom”, “Muslims”, and what have you.
A perfect storm of geopolitics, local realities, national politics, racism, hooliganism and vigilantism
Clearly, the racism played a role in the violence against Jews and Israelis. Based upon the footage I saw in the Telegram groups, going after a group of Jews (or people who may look like that, in whatever way) because they are Jews (and because of the myth that all Jews are Israel supporters), than that is antisemitic violence. Clearly, racism played a role in the attacks against locals by the Maccabi fans. If you glorify “death to Arabs” and the violence against Palestinian children and you attack people who protest against that, that is anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racist violence.
The reports in the media and outcries by politicians however was swift and strong focusing only on the antisemitism aspect and in fact dubbed the violence against Maccabi fans as an antisemitic pogrom. The focus on antisemitism in both political and media framings (and combinations thereof) shows, firstly, how, as is the case with the anti-genocide protests, official statements by politicians and administrators often reflect a significant concern with antisemitism.
Secondly, this antisemitism is then connected to Muslims / Moroccans in the framing. No doubt that many Moroccan-Dutch youth were present in the violent attacks on Maccabi hooligans, and that antisemitism with some did indeed play a role (although most of the messages I saw did not attack Jews for being Jews but Israeli hooligans for supporting violence against Palestinians), but here it is used as a tool to problematize the very presence of Moroccan-Dutch people, Muslims, migrants, and so on. It also drowns out the voices who point out that the Maccabi fans were attacked as retaliation for what happened earlier and/or that they were attacked as vocal hooligans celebrating ethnic expulsion and genocide.
Thirdly, much of the framing was done by the Dutch government but also by political leaders of those factions making up the coalition government. In particular far right leader Wilders of the Freedom Party (the largest party of the coalition) immediately hijacked all the attention by scapegoating Muslims. When Wilders reacts other politicians cannot remain behind and in particular the government has to respond forcefully in order not to be attacked by Wilders as being weak or for PM Schoof to make clear who is actually the PM here: him or Wilders.
Wilders labelled Amsterdam the “European Gaza” (the “European” will probably mean no airstrikes by the IDF) and called for denaturalization and deportation of “criminal Muslims”, while coalition partner Yesilgöz of the conservative liberal VVD called for immediate action to prevent antisemitism and the Christian-Democrats repeated their decades old mantra of “failed integration. Maccabi hooligans overnight became “Israeli citizens” and “tourists”. Current political controversies and decades old tropes about failed integration and multiculturalism (thereby scapegoating large groups of migrants, in particular Muslims with a migration background) were refreshed and put forward.
Political Hooliganism
The presence of Maccabi hooligans publicly supporting the violence against Palestinians merged with geopolitical affiliations (US president Biden and Canadian president Trudeau condemned the attacks – not those by Maccabi hooligans), vigilante violence, local realities, and national politics into a race to the bottom of Dutch politicians trying to present oneself as being the one and only protector of Jews and Netherlands through instrumentalizing concern and anger about antisemitism and of downright aggressive Islamophobia and xenophobia. It aligned perfectly with the official Israeli discourse that ties every criticism about ethnic expulsion and plausible genocide with the holocaust and centuries old jew hate for example by using the word pogrom.
The riots have been used to create a moral panic that brings various political factions in a very polarized landscape together at the expense of Muslims and other minorities. But probably also at the expense of Jews in the Netherlands. Their real and genuine fears and concerns are instrumentalized for what is basically creating a white unity. In the mean time, no massacre in Gaza has created such an outpour of emotions and condemnations among Dutch politicians. No real pogrom in the West Bank created an incentive for any government to repatriate victims. The decade long political, military, intellectual and social oppression of Palestinians was ignored as has been the case for long.
