Israeli support and the risk of becoming a target in Europe

Attacked as Israelis. The wind of anti-Semitism blew through the streets of Amsterdam on the night of Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv. Stadiums are an advanced front in the conflict and the circulation of Israeli fans is an easy invitation to pro-Palestine demonstrations. Now resulting in what the Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called “unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks” and the leader of the Dutch sovereignists Geert Wilders also “a pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam”. Many fans in Europe support the Palestinian cause. Last Wednesday, during Psg-Atletico Madridthe Parisian supporters had displayed a mega-banner that occupied the entire curve with the words Free Palestine.

What’s happening in Europe

UEFA did not sanction the club as “the banner displayed cannot be considered provocative or offensive”. In the Europa League, the same evening as Ajax-Maccabi, the fans of Galatasaray they had displayed the slogan “let the children of Gaza live” during the match against Tottenham. Palestinian flags appear almost everywhere, even in Italian stadiums. The Israeli federation is part of UEFA, the European football confederation, to prevent opportunities for meeting and conflict with the Arab world. In a statement, UEFA harshly condemned the incidents and announced that it would examine the videos.

The pre-match atmosphere

The atmosphere before the match at the Cruyff Arena was already very tense. Many videos on social media testify to provocations carried out by Maccabi fans starting from a chant “Death to the Arabs” sung on the escalators of a subway. Others show Israeli fans tearing up Palestinian flags and singing chants praising the massacre in the Gaza Strip. Before kick-off the Maccabi supporters also blew a minute’s silence for the victims of the Valencia floods in a protest against Spain for its support for the Palestinian cause.

The Maccabi fans

Maccabi Tel Aviv, as Valerio Moggia recalls, is a club without a specific political position, even if an offshoot of its support, the Fanatics, has emerged in the last twenty years due to some manifestations of intolerance. In 2014 they created a national case for having made racist insults against one of their players, Radi AttackersArab-Israeli, forcing him to leave the team. This cell, however, is isolated within the Maccabi curve. Last March, some Maccabi fans attacked a man with a Palestinian flag in Athens.

Ajax, the team from the Amsterdam ghetto

Ajax fans have sympathies towards the Jewish people and often use the Israeli flag. All this is due to the fact that the club has had numerous presidents and managers of Jewish origins. From the post-war period onwards, figures such as Jaap van Prague, Uil Coronel and Maup Caransa have followed one another. His fans are called “De Joden”, the Jews, by the opposing fans, often in a sarcastic and racist tone. In particular, the match against Feyenoord in Rotterdam, the most heartfelt match in all of Dutch football, was often the scene of demonstrations of anti-Semitism by the opposing fans.