Attacks on Israeli football fans: what should be done?
Pro-Palestinian rioters targeted and attacked Israeli fans after a football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, leaving between 20 and 30 people injured, according to police reports. For Europe's press, the violence is further evidence of an antisemitic trend that must be stopped.
The world must wake up
Borys Lozhkin, president of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, expresses his horror at the violence in Obosrevatel:
“These were not the usual clashes between football fans. Jews were hit by cars, beaten, stabbed and chased into the river just for being Jewish. ... All this didn't happen in 1938 but in 2024, in the middle of Europe, one day before the anniversary of the so-called Kristallnacht. The Holocaust began this way 86 years ago. It's time for the world to wake up.”
The face of a new antisemitism
Göteborgs-Posten sees the events in Amsterdam as symptomatic of a Europe-wide trend:
“To understand modern antisemitism in Europe, it is useful to read Norwegian historian Johannes Due Enstad. According to his study on antisemitism in Europe since 2018, the presence of a widespread critical attitude towards Israel and a large Muslim community are the main factors that drive widespread antisemitism in a country. According to Due Enstad, this strengthens the hypothesis of a 'new' antisemitism that grows out of hatred for Israel. This insight must be internalised in order to understand that the current events are not isolated phenomena - they are part of a larger problem in Western Europe as a whole.”
Hunted down
The taz doesn't agree with the claims that Israeli fans provoked the violence:
“Yes, the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan scene includes some right-wing hooligans, like the 'Maccabi Fanatics' group. They themselves rioted before the game, tore Palestine flags from windows and sang racist and war-glorifying songs on their way to the stadium. But does this justify the rampant violence that broke out after the game, after a significant time delay? Was it legitimate for people to go searching the city for Israelis, regardless of whether they were Maccabi fans or not? Is it fair to single out every single fan? Women, families, children? What happened in Amsterdam was a hunt.”
Don't fight hate with hate
The debate should not just focus on the police operation, De Volkskrant warns:
“This distracts from the question of why too many rioters cannot separate their abhorrence of Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip from their obvious abhorrence of Jews in general. This must be seen in the context of research that shows that a quarter of Dutch teenagers and young adults now trivialise the Holocaust. ... Long-term efforts are needed to reverse the trend and get people talking to each other again. If the debate is dominated by politicians who in turn push for people to be deported, the country won't make any progress.”
We need a more committed Europe
The EU must focus on the factors driving the new wave of antisemitism, La Repubblica demands:
“To prevent more Amsterdams, we can and must count on a collective mobilisation of consciences. ... But it is also and above all necessary for European governments to muster the courage and determination to create the conditions and prerequisites for putting an end to a conflict that has become the source of the hatred that feeds every antisemitic impulse. All the more so now that Donald Trump, a president who is willing to replenish Israel's arsenals and support the continuation of the war, is returning to the White House.”