Amsterdam’s mayor regrets describing violence against Israelis as a ‘pogrom’, says the term is ‘racist’

The Dutch cabinet nearly collapsed when a Moroccan junior finance minister resigned over ministers’ condemnation of the attack and called the criticism ‘possibly racist.‘

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Amsterdam’s mayor, Femkle Halsema, said that she regretted referring to the violence against Israelis following the Ajax-Maccabi game on November 7th as a “pogrom” and said the term could be construed as racist against Muslim immigrants.

On reports that a mob attacked Israeli fans, beating them, attempting to stab them, and running them over with vehicles, Halsema said, “I understand very well that this brings back the memory of pogroms.”

However, she added, “I saw how the word ‘pogrom’ has turned very political — into propaganda, in fact,” adding that “the government of Israel speaks about a ‘Palestinian pogrom on the streets of Amsterdam,'” and that Dutch politicians “use the word ‘pogrom’ essentially to discriminate against Moroccan, Muslim residents. I didn’t mean for that, and I don’t want that.”

What could have prompted Halsema’s apology was a near collapse of the Dutch cabinet over the resignation of junior finance minister Nora Achahbar, who is of Moroccan descent, over Amsterdam’s mayor and other politicians referring to the event as a “pogrom.”

Achahbar said she found the characterization of the incident as a pogrom “hurtful and possibly racist.”

Halsema accused Israeli Maccabi fans of inciting violence against Arabs prior to the attacks.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called Halsema’s apology for characterizing the attack as a “pogrom” “utterly unacceptable.”
Sa’ar wrote on X: ‘The failure that occurred that night must not be compounded by a further grave failure: a cover-up.’

Halsema’s remarks drew quick criticism from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who said on X (in both English and Hebrew) that the mayor’s words were “utterly unacceptable,” adding, “The failure that occurred on that night must not be compounded by a further grave failure: a cover-up.”

“Hundreds of Israeli fans who came to watch a football match were pursued and attacked, targeted by a mob asking for their passports to check if they were citizens of the Jewish state. There is no other word for this than a pogrom,” he continued.

“We will never again accept the persecution of Jews on the soil of Europe or anywhere else!” Sa’ar concluded.