OPINION: Hunted in Amsterdam
I don’t know where this is going for Jewish people. But I do know that in the last 13 months, taboos have been continuously broken.
It’s around a 20 minute drive in Amsterdam from 263 Prinsengracht to the Johan Cruyff Stadium. The former is where, for two years in the 1940s, a Jewish family hid from those intent on running them down. The latter is where, last night, Jewish people fled from those trying to hunt them.
Maybe you don’t like the above paragraph. Perhaps you believe it’s an exaggeration, or hysterical, or hyperbolic. If so, please forgive me. You see, over the last few months I have regularly seen pictures of Anne Frank with a Keffiyeh around her neck, or wearing Palestinian colours. Perhaps you can understand why, given Jewish people were being hunted on the streets of Amsterdam last night, a Jewish person might feel justified in saying her name, given that certain non-Jews now appear to feel no hesitation about doing so.
The stadium was hosting a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Reports indicate that groups of people were waiting for the Maccabi fans to exit the stadium after the game, which is when the hunting began. I am seeing many Jewish people describe this as a pogrom, and honestly, who can blame them? Tomorrow night is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, after all.
It is at this point that I should tell you that I have seen some footage of some people in Amsterdam, presumably Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, tearing down a Palestinian flag. I have seen other footage of Maccabi Ultras singing ‘To f** the Arabs; Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole; Let the IDF win – To f**the Arabs.”
I think that’s disgusting, racist behaviour. I note, however, that many people online seem to think that this is somehow a justification for what we then saw.
The videos of people being hunted down and beaten senseless, of people being physically harassed for their passports to ‘prove’ they don’t come from the Jewish State.
The footage of small children encouraged to kick prone bodies. The film of a man screaming ‘I’m not Jewish! I’m not Jewish!’ as he is set upon by multiple assailants.
In the last 13 months, Jewish communities around the world have had to endure regular marches through the cities in which they live. Some of the remarks made by attendees at these marches have been hideous; supporting the massacre of the men, women and children on October 7th. We have seen the tearing down of tens of thousands of posters of those taken hostage by Hamas.
I have not seen, nor would I ever wish to see, the people engaging in such behaviour targeted by furious Jewish people and physically beaten unconscious. I do not think this would happen and I would never wish it to happen; I do wonder, however, whether those now attempting to justify the scenes in Amsterdam would be quite as sanguine if it did.
You might wonder where the Dutch police were in all this. That’s an excellent question. Last month the Jerusalem Post reported that Dutch police were refusing to guard Jewish sites over ‘moral dilemmas’ . Presumably the Dutch police experienced those same ‘moral dilemmas’ in 1940s when the German occupation forces rounded up more than 100,000 Jews and sent them to their deaths in the gas chambers.
Again, forgive me for the bitterness which I know is coming across here. We are, after all, talking about Amsterdam, the place where when the few Jews who had survived the Holocaust returned, found that the city authorities expected them to pay back taxes on the properties which had been seized from them when they were deported to the Death Camps .
I don’t know where this is going for Jewish people. But I do know that in the last 13 months, taboos have been continuously broken. For 78 years it was almost unthinkable in the western world for synagogues to be surrounded by mobs, or for the mass murder of Jews to be openly celebrated. That is no longer true.
Here in the UK, the organisation I work for, the Board of Deputies, will be speaking to UK police and Government over the coming hours and days to ensure there will be no similar behaviour here in the UK. We will also be engaging with the Dutch Embassy to ensure that they understand the gravity of what has occurred.
This is undoubtedly a dark period for us all. The Board of Deputies, together with other Jewish organisations in this country, will do all we can to prevent it becoming darker still.
- Daniel Sugarman, director of public affairs, The Board of Deputies
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