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Dutch Court Sentences Men Over Pogrom

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News, reporting from Amsterdam, Netherlands

AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – A Dutch court handed down sentences Tuesday of up to six months imprisonment to the first men to be tried over what had been described as “the first pogrom in the Netherlands since World War Two.”

The November unrest erupted in Amsterdam after its football team Ajax took on Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv when mainly Moroccan Muslim crowds launched a “Jews hunt.”

The first five defendants, whose ages ranged from 19 to 32, were accused of public violence, theft, and assault.

The longest sentence handed out was six months in prison, given to a man accused of kicking one person and punching several others.

Another man received a one-month prison sentence after he was found guilty of assaulting Israeli fans and violently ripping a Maccabi scarf from one of them.

Another 19-year-old was sentenced to 100 hours of community service for participating in a social media chat group where antisemitic terms were used and for throwing stones at police.

Witnesses recalled that attackers asked for passports to decide if someone “was Jewish.” At least one person was thrown into an Amsterdam canal and only allowed to leave the water after saying “Free Palestine,” Worthy News monitored.

‘TOXIC COCKTAIL’

Prosecutors described the events as “a toxic cocktail” of hooliganism, antisemitism, and anger over the war in Gaza.

The prosecutor said the violence had “little to do with football” but added that “in this case, there was no evidence of … a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by antisemitic sentiment”.

The prosecutor added: “The violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza, not by antisemitism.”

However, commentators have criticized those conclusions as suspects could be seen shouting “cancer Jews” when burning an Amsterdam Tram, part of the extensive streetcar system in the capital, and “let’s hunt for Jews.”

The unrest resulted in five people being briefly hospitalized and left Amsterdam’s Jewish community, including survivors of the Holocaust, or Shoah, in fear.

Police detained more than 60 people, including 10 who live in Israel.

The investigation into the violence is continuing, and police released images of several suspects they hope to identify.

EMERGING VIOLENCE

Reports of disturbances began to emerge the day before the football match.

Police said Maccabi fans tore down a Palestinian flag from the facade of a building and burned it, shouting “f..k you, Palestine”, attacked a taxi with their belts, and vandalized others.

However, some police officials said privately that the Palestinian flag “was aimed at provoking fans” from Israel, a nation still mourning the 1,200 people killed on October 7, 2023, by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Police said that an online callout led several taxi drivers with a Muslim background to converge on a casino on the nearby Max Euweplein square, where about 400 Israeli fans had gathered.

Police dispersed the drivers and escorted supporters out of the casino.

The next day, clashes broke out in central Dam Square, where a large crowd of Maccabi supporters had gathered.

The fans were filmed chanting racist, anti-Arab slogans on their way to the Johan Cruyff Arena, according to witnesses.

FANS ESCORTED

Police escorted the 2,600 fans to the game and dispersed protesters who had defied a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the stadium.

After the match, which Ajax won 5-0, there were numerous assaults, described by the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, as violent “hit and run” attacks on Israeli supporters.

Witness accounts and screenshots of text messages suggest attackers had explicitly targeted Jews, asking people if they were Israeli or to show their passports.

Among those leading the international outcry was the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who condemned the clashes as a “planned antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens” and later compared the violence to the murder of an estimated 91 Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938, describing it as “Kristallnacht … on the streets of Amsterdam”.

The events also happened while those horrors were commemorated. At an emotionally charged news conference the morning after the unrest, Halsema said the city had been “deeply damaged” by “hateful antisemitic rioters.”

Halsema later said she regretted the parallel she had drawn between the violence and “memories of pogroms” as she felt the term had been used as propaganda when it came to describing what had transpired on the streets of Amsterdam.

Yet conservative commentators said Halsema had bowed to Muslim pressure amid growing concern about the influx of migrants from Morocco and other Arabic nations. At one point, anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders asked for her resignation.

Yet I regret what has happened”, an Uber taxi driver told Worthy News. “I am from Morocco, but I have many Jewish friends. I hope people will stop the polarization.”