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Protesters Taunt Amsterdam Cops With Pogrom Slogan

Anti-Israel protesters face Dutch police during a banned demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Esther Verkaik

JNS.org — Dozens of people chanted “Say ‘Free Palestine,’ then we go” at police officers at an illegal rally in Amsterdam on Wednesday night.

The phrase heard at the protest, where many participants had a Middle Eastern appearance, echoes those an assailant was filmed telling an Israeli who had jumped into a canal in the city to avoid a beating on Nov. 7. In the video, the swimming man says “Free Palestine” almost immediately after being prompted, drawing laughter from his attackers watching him from the embankment.

That incident was part of a series of preplanned assaults, which many Dutch Jews and others consider a pogrom, by at least 100 Muslim men against Israeli soccer supporters returning from a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Ajax team.

The chants, which were widely interpreted as a celebration of the violence exercised against Israelis on Nov. 7, were heard during the second anti-Israel gathering on Wednesday night at Dam Square, a central location that features a large monument for the victims of World War II.

Also on Wednesday night, demonstrators clashed with police at an illegal protest in Paris against a pro-Israel benefit held by local Jews.

Earlier this week, Belgian police arrested suspects whom detectives said were inspired by Amsterdam rioters to attack Jews in Antwerp.

These and other events are causing concern across Europe about a new security reality for Israelis, Jews, and law enforcement agents. The Amsterdam assaults showed the ability of local groups of Muslim rioters to use instant messaging to mobilize quickly and coordinate concentrated attacks on moving targets that they pursued in real-time.

“The nature of this event is a new development,” Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, told JNS Wednesday about the assaults in Amsterdam.

Chikli said that “several groups pursuing Jews in city centers” was something “we have not encountered before.”

His ministry’s situation room had monitored online preparations for the assaults. The information gathered was transmitted to Israeli security authorities and from there on to local law enforcement in Amsterdam, “who clearly dropped the ball,” Chikli said.

During the first gathering on Amsterdam’s Dam Square on Wednesday night, police provided transportation services to 265 people who had gathered there in violation of the municipality’s temporary blanket ban on demonstrations, the De Telegraaf daily reported. Police vans dropped off the protesters at least one location in the city’s west where the municipality decided to make an exception to the ban.

But many protesters returned to Dam Square, according to the paper. When police told them to leave, they chanted, “Say ‘Free Palestine,’ then we go.”

The handling of Wednesday’s protests in Amsterdam gave fresh ammunition to critics who accused the municipality of laxness — and who had already lambasted city authorities for not preventing the violence on Nov. 7.

“We have an emergency situation in the city, and yet another demonstration is being allowed. It completely undermines the sovereignty and credibility of the city government,” Cas van Berkel, a member of the Amsterdam City Council for the JA21 party, told De Telegraaf.

Some of the demonstrators at Dam Square shouted at police: “Whose streets? Our streets.”

When police attempted to arrest some protesters, they ran away, some of them shoving the officers, according to Bart Schut, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Dutch-Jewish weekly NIW.

“This is how a city looks when the mayor has no control of it,” he wrote on X, adding a hashtag calling for the resignation of Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema. At around midnight, Dam Square was empty, the AT5 television channel reported. It was not immediately clear how many people, if any, were arrested on Wednesday.

In a Dutch parliamentary debate on Wednesday about the assaults on Israelis by Muslims in Amsterdam, left-wing lawmakers accused the victims of instigating the violence and blamed the right-wing, pro-Israel politician Geert Wilders for stoking racial tensions.

The rhetoric on display in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of parliament, was part of an emerging narrative in the aftermath of the events of Nov. 7.

The incidents, which Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Wilders have called a pogrom, initially prompted blanket condemnations and expressions of shame. Some of those expressions, including by Dutch King Willem-Alexander, referenced the near annihilation of Dutch Jewry by the Nazis and their helpers during the Holocaust.

The assaults took place on the eve of the Nov. 9-10 anniversary of the Kristallnacht Nazi pogroms that took place in the Third Reich in 1938 — a fact that many Dutch officials referenced in speaking about the attacks.

Increasingly, however, the premise that the Israelis were the victims is being debated along the party and ideological lines that divide Dutch society, which is already polarized on issues of immigration and law enforcement.

At the parliamentary debate on Wednesday, Stephan van Baarle, a lawmaker for the Denk party, which has been colloquially described as a “Muslim political party” and is often been accused of antisemitism, presented the Israeli soccer fans as the aggressors.

Facing Wilders, he asked where Wilders was when “Maccabi rioters said to women with head covers: ‘You Arabs, we will kill you?’” and said that “Maccabi hooligans went hunting for Palestinians, to search for them.” The Dutch mainstream media and authorities have not reported on any such events.

Wilders said he condemned any expressions of violence by Israeli visitors, but said “it does not compare in any way to the Jew-hunt that we witnessed by Arab, Muslim men.”

Halsema, who on Friday said there was “no excuse” for the assaults against Israelis, at a debate at the City Council of Amsterdam juxtaposed the assaults of the Israelis with actions attributed to them.

“Israeli supporters, guests in our city, were searched, chased and attacked, accompanied by antisemitic calls on social media and on the streets. There were also Amsterdam residents who were attacked by Maccabi hooligans. Hooligans who used racist and hate speech in our city, against residents,” she said.

Prominent Dutch Jews, including attorney Herman Loonstein and Rabbi Meir Villegas Henriquez, accused the mayor of victim blaming. Villegas Henriquez has called on Dutch Jews to make aliyah following the assaults.

Footage from Nov. 7 shows dozens of men shouting “Let the IDF win” and “F—k the Arabs” in Hebrew as they enter a metro station after sunset. Another video shows Israelis stealing a PLO flag from a facade. A third shows Israeli men running in the city’s center, some of them holding sticks. It was not clear whether that video was filmed after or before the Muslims attacked the Israelis. Police said Israelis damaged a taxi cab, but some officers disputed this account, saying the driver had attacked Israelis.

On Wednesday night, Wilders, whose Party for Freedom is the country’s largest and a coalition partner, wrote on X that Prime Minister Dick Schoof had confirmed that perpetrators of the pogrom may be tried for terrorism and lose their Dutch citizenship. “Antisemitism can be considered extra reason for de-naturalization! Fantastic!” Wilders wrote.

Police are considering prosecuting 11 perpetrators of the assaults, in which 25 Israelis were wounded.

Following the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted another 251, Israel went to war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s critics in Europe have accused it of genocide, including at weekly rallies that have featured numerous calls for violence against Israelis and Jews. Several countries reported an explosion in recorded antisemitic incidents. In the Netherlands, the Center for Information and Documentation recorded an increase of 245 percent in antisemitic incidents in 2023 over 2022.

The post Protesters Taunt Amsterdam Cops With Pogrom Slogan first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials

FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

i24 NewsIranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.

“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.

The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.

The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.

According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”

The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.

Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.

Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.

The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.

Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.

Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.

Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.

There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.

The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.

Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.

US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS

The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.

Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.

The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.

The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say

Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo

The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.

The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.

The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.

The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.

The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.

The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.

While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.

The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.

USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.

One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.

The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.

The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.

Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.

The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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