RSS
Jewish, Israeli Organizations Mobilize to Aid Victims of Antisemitic Attacks in Amsterdam
Israeli soccer fans under assault, near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
Jewish and Israeli organizations mobilized to support victims with efforts on the ground just hours after Israeli soccer fans were attacked by mobs in Amsterdam on Thursday night and into Friday morning.
Maccabi World Union (MWU), which describes itself as “the world’s largest Jewish sports and education organization,” opened an emergency assistance center in Holland to aid fans who were still there.
“Maccabi World Union and Maccabi Israel are working together with Maccabi Holland to assist Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam,” MWU wrote in a statement on Instagram. “A support center has been set up at the offices of Maccabi Holland, and volunteers are ready to transport fans to the center if needed.”
The center, which was visited by the mayor of Amsterdam, has reportedly helped hundreds of fans who are receiving support until they board flights to Israel. The assistance fans have received includes transportation, hotel lodging, food, and security.
Chabad in Amsterdam also assisted following the attacks. The Hasidic group posted on X on Friday, “Chabad emissaries coordinated hundreds of volunteers from the Jewish community in Amsterdam, picking up stranded and wounded Jews from across the city all, and bringing them to the shelter.”
It added, “From there, they were able to fly out on an emergency return flight to Israel. Others will be spending Shabbat with Chabad.”
The Jewish Agency also offered to support the victims. The organization’s chairman, Major General (res.) Doron Almog, said, “We are shocked by the attack on Jews and Israelis simply because of their Jewish identity in the streets of Amsterdam, exactly 86 years after Kristallnacht [the infamous Nazi assault on the German Jewish community]. We will expand the program to strengthen communities and increase their resilience, to ensure that every Jew, anywhere in the world, will never feel alone.”
Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of Broken Glass,” unfolded on Nov. 9-10, 1938, when Nazi forces and German civilians destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues, leaving at least 91 Jews dead and 30,000 Jewish men arrested and sent to concentration camps. Over 7,000 Jewish-owned stores were looted.
Almost 86 years later to the exact day, hundreds of Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv reported facing a wave of violence from antisemitic, anti-Israel gangs of men late Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday. They were attacked before and after Maccabi Tel Aviv lost its match against the Dutch soccer team AFC Ajax as part of the UEFA Europa League.
Numerous graphic videos circulating on social media showed several street fights and Israelis being chased down the street with knives and sticks, beaten unconscious, and even run over by cars. In multiple incidents shared on social media, Israeli soccer fans were forced by their attackers to say “Free Palestine.” Some Israelis reportedly barricaded themselves in buildings, shops, and other places in the city to avoid the attacks.
“So far, it is known that five people have been taken to the hospital and 62 individuals have been arrested,” Amsterdam Police said in a statement.
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands expressed “deep horror and shock” over the attack during a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, according to a readout from Herzog’s office. The king also said, “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
Some observers argued the attacks were premeditated against the Israelis, while others claimed it was retaliation for some Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans in the streets before the game and tearing down at least two Palestinian flags in the city.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv fans had been “attacked, abused, and pelted with fireworks” around the city by “antisemitic hit-and-run squads.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered planes to be dispatched to the Dutch city to bring the fans home to Israel.
“In light of the recent events in Amsterdam, our hearts go out to the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans who faced such distressing circumstances,” MWU wrote. “It’s a stark reminder of the challenges faced by communities worldwide.”
The post Jewish, Israeli Organizations Mobilize to Aid Victims of Antisemitic Attacks in Amsterdam first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.