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Amsterdam Mayor Lambasted for Saying She Regrets Calling Violent Attacks Against Israeli Soccer Fans a ‘Pogrom’
Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema attends a press conference following the violence targeting fans of an Israeli soccer team, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Piroschka Van De Wouw
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar castigated Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema on Monday after the latter said she should not have used the word “pogrom” to describe the violent, antisemitic attacks that took place earlier this month against Israeli soccer fans in the Dutch capital.
At a press conference on Nov. 8, after the premeditated and coordinated attack, Halsema said, “Boys on scooters crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli football fans; it was a hit and run. I understand very well that this brings back the memory of pogroms.”
During her appearance on the Dutch state broadcaster NPO’s “News Hour” program on Sunday, Halsema was asked if she would use the term “pogrom” again to describe the incident. In her reply, the mayor explained that her use of the word in connection to the violent attacks has been wrongly politicized.
“First, let me say that the words ‘Jew hunt’ have been used,” she said. “People were going ‘Jew hunting’; they asked for passports. That night and early morning I spoke to many Jewish Amsterdammers on the phone, with a lot of emotions. And what I primarily wanted to express was the sadness and fear among Jewish Amsterdammers.”
“But I have to say that in the days after, I saw how the word ‘pogrom’ became very political and turned into propaganda,” Halsema added. “The Israeli government, speaking about a ‘Palestinian pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam.’ In the political class, the word pogrom is mainly used to discriminate against Moroccan Amsterdammers and Muslims. Those were not my intentions. And that’s not what I wanted.”
When asked a second time to give a clear answer as to whether she would describe the attacks during the late hours of Nov. 7 and early hours of Nov. 8 as a “pogrom,” Halsema said, “No.”
“If I had known that it would be used this way, politically and as propaganda, I don’t want anything to do with that,” she explained. “I find that nobody benefited from this. I never made a direct comparison but said that I could imagine the feeling. And I wanted to express sadness. But I am not an instrument in a national and international political battle.”
Saar said Haselma’s comments on Sunday were “utterly unacceptable.”
“The failure that occurred on that night must not be compounded by a further grave failure: a cover-up,” he wrote on Monday in a post on X. “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. The application of the term ‘pogrom’ was not an Israeli invention. It was used by Dutch politicians who recognized the severity and antisemitic nature of the incident. We will never again accept the persecution of Jews on the soil of Europe or anywhere else!”
Saar noted that other Dutch politicians have also described the attack as a “pogrom,” including hard-right Dutch political leader Geert Wilders, as well asChris Stoffer and Caroline van der Plas, both of whom are members of the Dutch House of Representatives.
During the late hours of Nov. 7, after a UEFA Europa League soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Dutch team Ajax in Amsterdam, fans of the Israeli team were chased with rocks, sticks and knives, assaulted, and run over by cars in various parts of the city by anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian gangs of men. Some attackers also tormented their victims by forcing them to say pro-Palestinian slogans like “Free Palestine” in order to avoid further abuse.
The attacks continued into the early hours of Nov. 8 and a number of the victims were hospitalized for injuries sustained during the attack. Dutch police said over the weekend that they have identified 45 suspects in connection to the attack, some of whom have already been arrested and arraigned.
Haselma said on Sunday that for two hours after the soccer game, between 12.30 am and 2.30 am, violent incidents suddenly spread throughout Amsterdam, not only targeting soccer fans. She additionally explained that she was taken aback by how swiftly Israel condemned the attack.
“We were completely caught off guard by Israel because at 3 am, [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu gave a press conference about what happened in Amsterdam while we were still gathering the facts,” she noted.
Ahead of the Nov. 7 soccer match, some Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Israel who were visiting Amsterdam for the game provoked locals in the Dutch city by chanting racist anti-Arab slogans and removing at least two Palestinian flags from what appeared to be residential buildings the night before the match.
Following the next day’s attacks — perpetrated by what Haselma had called “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” — Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, according to a readout from Herzog’s office.
Herzog said the “events echoed dark and grim times for the Jewish people and must be unequivocally condemned.”
The king expressed “deep horror and shock” over the attack and, according to the statement, told Herzog: “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
The post Amsterdam Mayor Lambasted for Saying She Regrets Calling Violent Attacks Against Israeli Soccer Fans a ‘Pogrom’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.