THERAN - Since Israel launched war on Gaza in October last year, Western states have aided and abetted the regime’s genocide in the Palestinian territory.

In line with supporting Israel’s crimes in Gaza, these states have demonized anti-war protesters in the US, Canada, Europe and beyond. 

The criminal actions of Israelis and their backers in the Netherlands’ capital in the wake of a recent sporting event have once again directed global attention towards the West’s pro-Israel bias.

On Thursday night, Israeli football supporters attacked people believed to be pro-Palestinian protesters before and after a Europa League football match between their team Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax in Amsterdam.

The attacks occurred outside the Johan Cruyff Arena, the city’s main arena and Ajax Amsterdam’s home stadium, as well as in other areas. 

Videos circulated on social media show Maccabi fans shouting insults at Palestinians and Arabs, calling them “terrorists”. 

The footage also shows them waving Israeli flags, expressing support for the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and tearing down Palestinian flags. 

Supporters of Palestine had gathered near the central Dam Square – as instructed by the municipality – to hold a peaceful protest coinciding with the day of the football match.

Police deployed hundreds of its troops after Israeli football fans began the riots and made dozens of arrests. 

Israeli hooliganism 

A member of Amsterdam city council accused Maccabi’s fans of instigating violence. 

“They began attacking houses of people in Amsterdam with Palestinian flags, so that’s actually where the violence started,” Councilman Jazie Veldhuyzen told Al Jazeera on Friday.

Amsterdam abetting apartheid: Dutch police stand accused of protecting Israeli football fans who beat Netherlands’ Arab and Palestinian citizens.  He added, “As a reaction, Amsterdammers mobilized themselves and countered the attacks that started on Wednesday by the Maccabi hooligans.”

Veldhuyzen also accused the Dutch police for condoning the aggressive actions of the Israel football team. 

“They acted only to protect the Maccabi hooligans when Amsterdammers stood up to defend their own people and defend their own houses. And this is when the police showed up to protect the Maccabi fans when they ran away after attacking people,” he noted.
 
Defending aggressors 

The Dutch prime minister accused pro-Palestinians of promoting anti-Semitism. 

“Completely unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with all those involved,” Dick Schoof said in a post on X Friday. 

The Israeli premier also played the blame game calling the event a “very violent incident against Israeli citizens”.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity and demands that the Dutch government and security forces take vigorous and swift action against the rioters, and ensure the safety of our citizens”.
Western and Israeli media have similarly misrepresented the situation, attributing blame to pro-Palestinian and anti-war groups. 

FIFA, UEFA urged to take action 

The Palestine Football Association (PFA) said in a statement on Friday that it was “gravely concerned by the sequence of violent events in Amsterdam”, specifically the “deplorable incitement to violence, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobia expressed by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans”.

The PFA urged football’s governing bodies FIFA and UEFA “to address the normalization of genocidal, racist, and Islamophobic rhetoric among Israeli football supporters and to implement concrete measures to combat this hostility”.
An PFA official also dismissed anti-Semitic accusations as baseless.

“It was very unfortunate for us as Palestinians, to keep framing this incident [as] anti-Semitic, instead of addressing the main question, which is, why are Israeli clubs like Maccabi Tel Aviv permitted to compete on international stages while Israel is committing acts of genocide, occupation and dispossession of Palestinians?” Dima Said told Al Jazeera on Saturday. 

She added, “Allowing those Israeli teams to participate in global sports kind of contradicts with the values of peace and unity that FIFA and UEFA claim to support, while Israeli actions actually violate the international law.”

Israeli football fans swear at Arabs and Palestinians in Amsterdam as a city council member accuses the Maccabi Tel Aviv “hooligans” of instigating violence. 

The official said Palestinians have called on FIFA to suspend Israeli teams from participating in international sporting events, on the basis that Israel is committing “genocidal acts”.

Similar calls were made on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) via online petitions and protests to bar Israel from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games over the regime’s atrocities in Gaza. But such appeals fell on deaf ears amid the West’s backing for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza which has claimed the lives of 43,500 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. 

Western hypocrisy 

The violent acts of the Israeli football fans in Amsterdam and the participation of Israel in the Paris Olympic games have highlighted the double-standard and hypocritical approaches of the West and the organizations affiliated to them. This is because Russia and Belarus have either been barred from world sports or faced restrictions over the Ukraine war. 

Bibi’s political ploy 

Irrespective of the West’s bias in favor of Israel, Netanyahu, known as Bibi, is benefiting from the incidents that took place in Amsterdam. 

Reports suggest that multiple supporters of the Israeli football team sustained injuries during confrontations with some Amsterdam residents. However, these injuries were primarily a response to their derogatory remarks directed at local residents.

The Netanyahu regime is framing such clashes as anti-Semitic attacks to play the innocent and divert attention from growing global resentment against Israel’s crimes in Gaza which have expanded into Lebanon.   

Since the start of the Gaza war, people in Europe have staged large-scale protests to vent their anger at Israel’s barbarism in the Palestinian territory. 

Israel has exaggerated Thursday’s clashes in Amsterdam to exert more pressure on Western governments to stop anti-regime protests. 

Netanyahu also ordered the deployment of two military planes to return the Israelis from Amsterdam. The jets landed in the city but the plan was later canceled.  

Through such military displays, Netanyahu wants to convey the message that Israel is the safest place for Jews, in particular for those who have left Israel since the beginning of the Gaza war. 

Besides, such ploys aim to create the impression that the continuation of Israel’s brutal offensives in Gaza and Lebanon are necessary to ensure the security of Jews. However, more than a year into the Gaza onslaught, Israel has failed to achieve its military goals in the face of rising casualties among its troops on the battlefield.