This is a quick transcript. Copies may not be in their final form.
amy goodman:I wanted to ask where you are now. You are in Mouan Rabbani, The Hague. But I would like to ask you about the latest news in nearby Amsterdam, where on Sunday there were clashes in the streets between visiting Israeli soccer fans, followed by pro-Palestinian protesters who disobeyed a ban on demonstrations. More than 100 demonstrators were beaten and arrested by police, many of them violently. , and Dutch youth.
The unrest in the city began on Wednesday, when fans of the soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv were seen chanting such slogans. I want to convey these slogans correctly, but I want to be careful with my words. I.D.F. Victory, and F—Arabs,” but of course they say “F—” referring to the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Another video showed a fan shouting, “Hehe, you terrorists!” Shinwar, die! Everyone, die! ” referring to the Hamas leader who was assassinated last month.
The mayor of Amsterdam blamed “anti-Semitic hit-and-run squads,” but many officials in Amsterdam said Israeli fans, known as hooligans, were responsible for inciting the violence. The violence made international headlines as Israel sent a plane to evacuate Israeli fans.
On Sunday, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy contributed an article to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper with the headline: “Amsterdam attack shows Israelis deny reality of their own making.” In it, Gideon Levy writes: No, it’s not because we’re Jewish. It’s not that anti-Semitism doesn’t exist. Of course it exists and anti-Semitism must be fought, but any attempt to pin everything on anti-Semitism is foolish and deceptive. …The rioting North African migrants, Arabs and Dutch people have witnessed the devastation in Gaza over the past year. They are not going to remain silent about themselves. …This is also the cost of the Gaza war that must be considered. The world will hate us for it. From now on, all Israelis abroad will become targets of hatred and violence. The same thing happens when you kill nearly 20,000 children, commit ethnic cleansing, and destroy the Gaza Strip. It’s a bit of a quirk of the world. People who commit this type of crime are not liked. ”Again, these are the words of Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who wrote an article for Haaretz.
Mouan Rabbani, can you tell me what happened?
Mouan Rabbani: yes. Now, picking up where we left off, their favorite slogan was, in fact, “Death to the Arabs!” May your village burn! “There are no schools in Gaza because all the children are dead.” But it wasn’t just racist and genocidal slogans. These Israeli soccer hooligans, thugs, also committed vandalism, assaulting people of Arab appearance, and assaulting taxis, totaling one of them.
And more importantly, they were allowed to do all this under police protection. Comparing this to British football, for example, when a British team plays overseas, the British government does not provide police details to protect hooligans, but to detain hooligans and prevent them from causing damage. send to the team. So what we are talking about here in Amsterdam is not a clash between hooligans of two opposing teams, but rather these Israeli thugs attacking people who, in principle, have nothing to do with the match. and then confront them. Their toll also included violence.
Then, something like a power struggle took place within the Dutch elite. The far-right, de facto ruler of the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, is trying to undermine the government and prime minister he appointed to increase his power over the Netherlands, and that government is trying to keep the territory and, if you will, its coalition partners. I’m trying. trying to maintain their power. So they all began to compete against each other, demonizing their own people and calling these conflicts anti-Semitic Jew-hunts. This will only make sense if it can be shown that the victims of these clashes are not just supporters of the Israeli team or Israelis more generally. as well as Dutch Jews, Dutch Jewish Agencies, and Dutch Jewish property. And there is no evidence that such an attack took place, which the Dutch Jewish community was understandably afraid of, given all the reports it received about Jewish hunting, anti-Semitic pogroms, etc. There’s no evidence they even asked about being deaf. For police protection on the night in question. So the government, Wilders and the mayor of Amsterdam are going to increasing extremes in trying to compare what happened to the Nazi occupation, the German occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940s. Result –
amy goodman: Muan, please let me hear what Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said. He has met with US President-elect Donald Trump three times in recent days and also commented on what happened in Amsterdam on Thursday night.
prime minister benjamin netanyahu:(Translation) Yesterday we recorded Kristallnacht, which took place on European soil 86 years ago. It was a brutal and violent attack on Jews simply because they were Jewish. Unfortunately, over the past few days we have seen photos that remind us of that night. In the streets of Amsterdam, anti-Semitic mobs attacked Jewish citizens of Israel simply because they were Jewish. But there is one big difference between that night and our time. That is, today we have a nation.
amy goodman: What is your reaction to Israeli Prime Minister Muin Rabbani?
Mouan Rabbani: Well, of course, the big difference between Kristallnacht in November 1938 and what we saw in Amsterdam on November 7th is that property marked for assault and attack was marked with, for example, a Palestinian flag. They were targeted because they had been exposed. It is not a menorah. So, that’s kind of an important difference.
And, you know, these people were chosen not because they were soccer supporters or because they were presumed to be supporters of this racist, genocidal soccer hooligan gang, but because they were Jewish. All this The story is really about justice, you know, trying to. Let me emphasize again, the real victims here are not the children being slaughtered in the Gaza Strip; the real victims are These are the people who are engaged in genocide and the people who are committing genocide.
And what’s happening now is that the Dutch government, the city of Amsterdam, and the Amsterdam police have taken emergency measures to ban all demonstrations against genocide, and as you mentioned, dozens of people have violated that ban. They have started arresting people. To assemble peacefully to protest what is happening in Gaza.
Of course, there is a larger context here, and that is the failure and rejection of the so-called international football authorities. FIFA and UEFAwhich immediately imposed comprehensive measures against the Russian Federation and Russian teams, literally within days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, against Israel, the Israeli Football Association, and Israeli football clubs. All measures were taken.
amy goodman: We only have 30 seconds, but what is happening in Lebanon, where thousands of people have been killed and attacks continue, especially in southern Lebanon, even though Israel claims that ceasefire negotiations are progressing? Could you please make a final comment on that?
Mouan Rabbani: Yes, well, Israel is failing militarily – it is still clinging to its border areas – and so it has unleashed an outpouring of anger and aggression against Lebanese civilians and channeled it into pressure on the government and Hezbollah. I would like to use it as a form. accomplish something.
amy goodman: Mr. Muan, thank you very much for joining us. Mouan Rabbani —
Mouan Rabbani: thank you.
amy goodman: — Dutch Palestinian Middle East analyst, host of the podcast Connections, former senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, and contributor to the book The Flood: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Catastrophe.
Democracy now! is currently accepting applications for the Video News Production and Digital Fellowship. Visit democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thank you for joining us for another edition of Democracy Now.
