The sight of Jewish people hounded through the streets of Amsterdam by a baying mob has invoked memories of some of the darkest hours of European history. In the words of Dutch King Willem-Alexander, his country “failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War Two, and last night we failed again”.
Rioters carrying knives shouted slogans including “free Palestine” while Israeli fans hid in hotels or leapt into canals to escape. In the words of Israeli President Isaac Herzoc, this was an “anti-Semitic pogrom”, and the result is that his country is now sending two planes to rescue its citizens.
As Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis says, this shameful incident should be a “watershed moment for Europe and the world”.The scenes in Amsterdam did not emerge from a vacuum. Anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence has surged across the continent since the October 7 pogrom in Israel, with crowds of pro-Palestine protesters chanting hate-filled slogans and direct attacks upon people and property in cities including Berlin and Paris.
Britain is no exception to this trend, and the Government’s independent advisor on political violence Lord Walney has called for the UK to be on “high alert for the safety of Jewish people here”, and to adopt a hard line on rhetoric that calls on protesters to “globalise the intifada”.
More broadly, it is time for politicians across the West to drop evasive wordgames and directly confront the reality of the new anti-Semitism, and its roots in Islamist thought. Until they do so, policymakers will be left chasing shadows.