The ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon have created a devastating humanitarian crisis, with Israeli attacks claiming the lives of at least 50,000 people, with approximately 17,000 children killed in Gaza since hostilities began—making up 44 per cent of the victims. A recent United Nations report stated that 70 per cent of those killed in the war on Palestinians are women and children.

The scale of displacement is staggering, with around 3.5 million people forced from their homes in Gaza and Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands in northern Gaza are now facing starvation. Despite such harrowing suffering, the response from global leaders has been disturbingly muted, with little sustained outcry or meaningful action to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation.

Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, tensions escalated during a football match between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Dutch team Ajax, resulting in clashes that left five people hospitalised. Dutch prosecutors have detained four suspects. On Monday, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar criticised the limited number of arrests.

The clashes were triggered by the provocative actions of Israeli fans who on Wednesday and Thursday antagonised local residents by tearing down Palestinian flags, chanting “Death to Arabs,” and attacking a Moroccan taxi driver.

On the day of the match, Israeli supporters booed during a minute of silence held for the victims of recent floods in Spain. This disrespectful gesture was widely interpreted as a reaction to Spain’s official recognition of Palestine as a state and its decision to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

During the match, Israeli fans chanted offensive and inflammatory slogans, including the disturbing remark, “there are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left.” These provocations escalated the already tense atmosphere, leading to confrontations between local residents and Israeli fans after the game. Videos of Israeli supporters chanting “Death to Arabs” outside a metro station in Amsterdam quickly went viral.

The response to the clashes was swift. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands expressed regret, stating that his country had failed its Jewish community and drew comparisons to the Nazi occupation during World War II. “Our history has shown us how intimidation can escalate,” he remarked, stressing that the country must not ignore “anti-Semitic behaviour.”

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who cut short his participation in an EU summit in Budapest, described the incidents as “anti-Semitic attacks” and assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call that the Netherlands would hold those responsible to account. Schoof also cancelled a planned trip to the United Nations climate talks in Azerbaijan to address the situation and met with Jewish community leaders on Tuesday.

Netanyahu likened the events in Amsterdam to Kristallnacht, the infamous Nazi pogrom of 1938, and briefly considered sending an Israeli military plane to evacuate fans before deciding against such a measure.

US President Joe Biden condemned the clashes, stating on social media platform X: “The anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam are despicable and echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted.”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to attend the upcoming match between the French and Israeli national teams in Paris on Thursday. The Élysée Palace noted that Macron’s attendance was intended to show support for the French team and send a strong message of solidarity in light of what it described as “intolerable acts of anti-Semitism.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a statement condemning the events, asserting: “Anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in Europe, and we are determined to fight all forms of hatred.”

Amsterdam’s Mayor, Femke Halsema, called the incident “a dark night,” describing the violence as “anti-Semitic hit-and-run attacks” targeting supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv. “My heart goes out to the victims and their families, both here and in Israel,” she said.

Right-wing politicians, including far-right leader Geert Wilders, echoed this sentiment, labelling the clashes as “anti-Semitic attacks.” Wilders went further, calling for the deportation of those he termed “multicultural scum,” whom he blamed for the violence.

However, many see Europe’s Arab and Muslim communities as the true victims of these events.

“The far-right has labelled us as scum, and the police arbitrarily detained around 60 young Arabs and Muslims, only to release most of them after finding no wrongdoing. The political establishment across the West offered unwavering support to the Israeli rioters. Israeli fans were even escorted to the airport under Dutch police protection. Meanwhile, we—Arab and Muslim citizens of the Netherlands who pay taxes and obey the law—feel utterly abandoned. Many of us now fear wearing the hijab, the Palestinian keffiyeh, or displaying Palestinian flags due to the surge in racism and incitement against us,” Basma Al-Radi, an Arab woman who has lived in Amsterdam for 20 years, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The media coverage in the West has been widely criticised for its biased reporting and selective narratives. Analysis of reports from major Western outlets, including The Guardian, AP, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, The Financial Times, and The Daily Mail, reveals a clear bias in favour of the Israeli fans, portraying them predominantly as victims while overlooking their provocative actions that initially incited the clashes.

This framing has led to a problematic simplification of the incident, depicting it solely as an anti-Semitic attack—a narrative many consider misleading. Leading newspapers featured almost identical headlines such as “Israeli Fans Attacked in Amsterdam” or “Violent Clashes Targeting Israeli Football Fans,” focusing on the rise of anti-Semitism.

This narrative not only demonstrates a clear bias towards Israel but also exposes underlying prejudices against Arabs and Muslims. Many reports speculated—without evidence—that the clashes were instigated by “gangs of Muslim immigrants.”

A more accurate and objective analysis of the situation, aligned with the facts and timeline of events, suggests that the real threat originated with the Israeli fans, whose racist and hateful behaviour towards Arabs and Muslims posed a significant risk to the safety of those communities across Europe and beyond.

The media’s focus on the reaction of Arab and Muslim Dutch citizens neglected the broader context of the incident. The tearing down of the Palestinian flag was a deliberate and inflammatory act, especially given the sensitive political climate surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For Palestinians and their supporters, the flag is a symbol of resistance against occupation and displacement. The destruction of the flag by Israeli fans was seen as a direct provocation, intended to incite anger and escalate tensions. However, this crucial context was largely absent from the reports, leading to a one-sided portrayal of events.

By failing to highlight this vital context, the media effectively silenced the voices of those who were wronged by the behaviour of the Israeli fans. Instead of offering a balanced perspective and addressing the growing wave of Islamophobia and hatred of Arabs, these issues have been completely absent from Western media coverage while terms like “anti-Semitism” and “attacks on Jews” have been repeatedly emphasised.

This misrepresentation is particularly damaging because it reinforces harmful stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims as inherently aggressive.

Even more troublingly, there are now concerted efforts to exploit these events as a means to silence the voices of Arabs and Muslims in Europe, all under the guise of combating anti-Semitism. The Israeli National Security Council issued a warning this week stating that “groups have been identified targeting Israelis in several European cities,” including Brussels, various cities in the UK, Amsterdam, and Paris.

This is happening in tandem with the Dutch government’s ban on pro-Palestinian marches, prompting organisers to voice their frustration, accusing officials of weaponising an anti-Semitic narrative to suppress Palestinian solidarity.

Over the past 13 months, numerous instances have exposed the deep-rooted bias of Western politicians and media in favour of Israel. However, the Amsterdam incident stands out particularly because it occurred at a time when Palestinian children were starving to death in northern Gaza, where Israel had blocked food supplies as part of its strategy to forcibly displace the population. The unimaginable suffering and mounting death toll in Gaza and Lebanon—rising by the hundreds each day—have been met with international silence, indifference or, at best, superficial expressions of concern.

This represents a profound moral failure on the part of the West, one that could have serious implications for the future, particularly for the values of coexistence, tolerance, and pluralism in Europe. Moreover, the principle of free speech is under unprecedented attack, as efforts to silence dissenting voices escalate under the pretence of combating anti-Semitism.

A recent example of this concerning trend was the attempt to prevent Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, from speaking at several British universities, including the School of Oriental and African Studies, the London School of Economics, and Queen Mary University. In her latest report on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Albanese concluded that Israel is committing genocide. Despite immense pressure from the Israeli lobby in the UK to silence her, the attempt ultimately failed. Universities and students insisted on hearing from Albanese, who has become a crucial voice in advocating for Palestinian rights against genocide.

However, the events in Amsterdam and the manipulation of “anti-Semitism” as a tool to suppress dissent while invoking Europe’s painful history of Jewish persecution are being used to justify the ongoing killing, land theft, and forced displacement of Palestinians. This unprecedented injustice is one whose repercussions will extend far beyond the current conflict.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly