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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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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
The post New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events
A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
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