The Battle of Islamsterdam

On November 7, the Dutch capital has been the theater of fighting between a group of foreigners and people who carry a Dutch passport but cannot be considered to be Dutch in any meaningful sense.

The foreigners were Israelis, fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football club. Mostly younger males of military age, they had traveled to Amsterdam to watch the UEFA Europa League match between their team and Ajax Amsterdam, colloquially known as De Joden (the Jews). The fact that the Israeli team was demolished with five goals against zero may have been the cause for some collective sadness.

It is in itself quite extraordinary that Israeli teams are permitted to take part in the tournament, whereas Russian teams are not, at least since 2022. The reason? In that year, Russia launched a Special Military Operation against the Ukraine in order to stop the permanent shelling by NATO-supported Ukrainians of Russian-speaking residents of Donetsk and Lugansk, which had already claimed almost 20,000 victims (mostly civilians). This shelling had been going on since 2014, but Ukrainian teams were not barred from UEFA competitions. Nor have teams from Israel, which has been invading, bombing and killing its neighbors for decades, ever been punished for what their government has been perpetrating. In other words, it is UEFA that has introduced politics (one-sided, moreover) into the exciting and fascinating world of football.

While UEFA is obviously a politicized outfit and for that reason alone deserves to be shunned, on the ground that it is definitely not a good idea to mix sports with politics, especially if there is a war going on. As the Maccabi fans made their way to the stadium, some of them, seeing Palestinian flags flying on buildings, tore these down as their comrades cheered. Inside the stadium, when asked to observe a minute of silence to commemorate the hundreds of victims of the recent Valencia floods, the Israelis preferred to continue yelling and cheering, even chanting anti-Palestine slogans.

At that point, in view of the strict rules usually observed during football games, the local authorities should immediately have postponed the match and drive out the Israeli fans: their disrespectful, even offensive anti-European, anti-Christian and anti-Muslim behavior was not to be tolerated. Not only because of events in the Middle East, but also because, like it or not, Amsterdam has a considerable Muslim population of up to 20%. Perhaps one in five of all people under 25 are Moroccan. Mohammed is the name most often given to newborn boys. Since all these Muslims are now Dutch citizens, they are entitled to have their feelings respected and do not deserve to be insulted by groups of foreigners, even if these hail from Israel.

The Jerusalem Post reported that there were persistent rumors about Amsterdam Muslims and assorted Palestinian sympathizers planning to organize a demonstration against the ongoing Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza. Although many Palestinians are Christians, Muslims all over the world have been identifying with the Palestinians. Under these circumstances, given the reputed superiority of Israeli spy services, one is left to wonder why these have not prevented Maccabi fans from traveling to Amsterdam, since some sort of trouble seemed imminent. This fact in itself sheds a peculiar light on what is being called in Israel the “Amsterdam Pogrom.”

Hundreds, thousands of Israelis were chased by angry young Muslims, many of them Moroccans. Israelis were insulted, humiliated, beaten up, hit by cars and thrown in canals. Basically, it was an ordinary street fight of the kind not seldom seen in European cities, especially in connection with football matches. Nothing really out of the ordinary therefore. With the difference that this time there was more theatrical violence and many of the victims were Israelis. Moreover, it seemed they were the ones who first stepped out of line, so they had it coming.

As was to be expected, Israeli leaders and public officials loudly voiced their indignation and shock, wailing about anti-semitism.

Yet the Muslims who chased the Israelis did precisely what the Dutch government brought them in for in the first place: act as a fifth column of street thugs and attack non-Muslims. For decades, Dutch and other European big cities have been flooded with young Muslims (“asylum seekers,” “refugees,” etcetera), who are actually a kind of Brown Battalions sweeping the streets just as their brown-shirted predecessors did in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. All year round, their victims are the real local natives and especially Dutch girls and women. The Amsterdam crime stats are consistently headed by young Moroccans. Street crime of all sorts and shapes and street violence (strictly against non-Muslims) are reportedly the preferred specialties of Moroccans, who are responsible for some 80% of these. Whoever dares to point this out or, especially, laments about it on social media risks being accused of “hate speech.”

Now that the victims of the Brown Battalions are a group of Israeli tourists, finally the Dutch public have a chance to join the chorus and chant their long-suppressed complaints.

There are, however, still some questions that remain unanswered: now that Israel seems in the process of carrying out its “Final Solution” with respect to the Palestinians and its neighbors in Lebanon and Syria, why would it allow thousands of young men of military age to engage in wanton leisure activities abroad? Aren’t they urgently needed by the Israeli army, navy and air force? Certainly after more than a year of exhausting operations.

The female mayor of Amsterdam, long surrounded by the distinct odor of abuse of office and corruption, seems to have requested a formal investigation into the possible threats to public order resulting from the massive presence of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in the city. The Dutch spy service that did the investigation asserted there was no danger and that the coast was clear. Thus, two spy services, an Israeli and a Dutch one, both gave the green light. Why would that be?

It would seem the Battle of Islamsterdam looks suspiciously like it was arranged. Either that, or the Israeli and Dutch spy services are both woefully inadequate.

The official narrative on the Battle of Islamsterdam, however, has some definite benefits: it serves to show the Israeli public and the rest of the world that Israelis absolutely need to hang on to their small but ever expanding slice of land, because it is only there that they can feel a little safe. At the same time, it serves as a justification for the continuation of Israeli operations against its neighbors. In these uncertain times times, now that BRICS is growing and the US is about to undergo a change in its foreign policy, that is quite welcome indeed.