Attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Europe heightens tensions and antisemitism fears

Jewish community leaders in the Netherlands are urging their Muslim counterparts to start discussing ways of reducing tensions caused by the conflict in Gaza. Divisions have deepened in the Netherlands and France following two recent soccer matches involving Israeli teams. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant begins his report in Paris.
Amna Nawaz:
Jewish community leaders in the Netherlands are inviting their Muslim counterparts to meet and try to find ways to reduce tensions caused by the war in Gaza. Divisions have deepened there and in France following two recent soccer matches involving Israeli teams.
Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant begins his report in Paris.
Malcolm Brabant:
“You’re the terrorists,” chant pro-Palestinian protesters, taunting French riot police, preventing them from reaching an international match between France and Israel.
Fatma Jaffar, Pro-Palestine Protester (through interpreter):
They say they’re killing terrorists. They’re not killing terrorists. They’re killing children, women and the elderly.
Nadia, Pro-Palestine Protester:
I want cease-fire, of course, but I want sanctions too, because we have a genocide. Actually, we have a genocide in Palestine. So we have to put them in jail.
Abdul Karim, Pro-Palestine Protester (through interpreter):
The massacre continues for one year, and now we’re dealing with a genocide. The numbers show us something like 50,000 dead, but research by “The Lancet” tells us we’re probably closer to 200,000 dead.
Protesters:
Free, free Palestine!
Malcolm Brabant:
Thousands of officers were deployed to protect Israel’s soccer fans, apart from about 100 most heated warnings to stay away.
“Thanks to the police,” they chanted after the game. The French operation prevented a repeat of violence in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, 10 days ago, when followers of a Tel Aviv soccer team were targeted by pro-Palestinian supporters. Israel’s hooligans were accused of provoking trouble by tearing down Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Arab slogans.
But the attacks that followed were widely characterized as a hunt for Jews, and community leaders were relieved there were no fatalities.
Esther Voet, Editor in Chief, Dutch Jewish Weekly: That really changed my view of this town. I don’t feel welcome anymore, and I’m planning on leaving. It’s too — it’s been too much.
Malcolm Brabant:
Jewish newspaper editor Esther Voet is worried about her personal security and asked us to ensure that we didn’t identify her home.
Esther Voet:
You can see it as a final straw, because already on the 10th of March we had huge things going on here with the opening of the Holocaust Museum, where Holocaust survivors and their grand — great-grandchildren had to pass by very aggressive protesters.
Malcolm Brabant:
And, says Voet, there have been many other incidents of intimidation.
Esther Voet:
And nothing was done against it. You know, that nothing is done, that is the scary part.
Ali Shanaa, Palestinian Activist:
I think it’s just continuing with playing the victim card, right?
Malcolm Brabant:
Palestinian data scientist Ali Shanaa has helped to organize some demonstrations in Amsterdam. His family became refugees in 1948, when Israel was created.
Ali Shanaa:
The people that we’re referring to, while they might be Jewish, mainly they’re Zionist, and that’s why they’re feeling uncomfortable. And, in my opinion, and I think in many other people’s opinions, it’s OK for them to feel uncomfortable if the reason for this discomfort is that they want to stand in support of a genocide and they don’t want anyone speaking up against this genocide.
Malcolm Brabant:
The fallout from the violence almost led to the collapse of the governing coalition. But the government remains under the firm control of right-winger Geert Wilders, who wants to deport those responsible for the antisemitic attacks.
Berber Van Der Woude is a former Dutch diplomat who served in the occupied territories and resigned over the Netherlands’ Middle East policies.
Berber Van Der Woude, Former Dutch Diplomat:
We have a Dutch government in power that is far right. They really instrumentalized this idea that there was a huge — that there was basically a pogrom to use it as, like, a stick to beat up basically the Arab communities in the Netherlands, Muslim communities.
Malcolm Brabant:
Muslims comprise 5 percent of the Dutch population. That’s about one million people, whereas Jews number about 45,000, about a third of their pre-Holocaust strength.
This is a place of pilgrimage. It’s where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis and wrote her diary until her betrayal in 1944. Eighty years later, antisemitism has a different face.
Hans Weijel, Vice Chairman, Central Jewish Consultation:
Jews are blamed for the bad things happening outside our community. I can’t pick up the phone, as a Dutch Jew, call Netanyahu and ask him to stop it or to diminish it or whatever. He doesn’t pick up the phone.
Malcolm Brabant:
Community leader Hans Weijel believes trouble is being orchestrated by a violent minority and has proffered an olive branch.
Hans Weijel:
There are imams who talk to our rabbis and there are laymen who talk to our laymen. But the problem is, we don’t hear any sound of, let’s say, the leaders of the Muslim community, who say antisemitism is wrong. You can’t blame Jews in Holland. You can’t blame Jews for what’s happening in Israel.
Malcolm Brabant:
Back in Paris, Moroccan-born protester Abdul Karim insists it’s wrong to depict the Gaza debate as a conflict between Islam and Jews.
Abdul Karim (through interpreter):
For the last 18 years, there’s been a blockade in Gaza. Can you imagine a place as small as Gaza under a blockade? It’s not just Muslims who are revolted by the situation.
Malcolm Brabant:
But the habit of linking all Jews to Israel’s actions has exhausted Esther Voet.
Esther Voet:
Since October 7, my world has shrunk. I don’t go to a bar anymore. I lost friends or people who I thought were friends. So you start hiding yourself, and your circle is getting smaller with people you trust and that you can also talk about something else than only this huge problem.
Malcolm Brabant:
Half-a-mile away, the base of Anne Frank’s statue is adorned with stones, a traditional Jewish sign of respect for the dead. They’re also lamenting the return of antisemitism.
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Malcolm Brabant in Amsterdam.