Hamza

Hamza

@howidyhamza · Twitter ·

Just imagine if Jews or Israelis went to beat and terrify everyone who chanted for "Intifada" this year or everyone who burned an Israeli flag. Would you say the same? In the Muslim countries, at least most of them, they at least call for the destruction of Israel and the Jews at least once a week on Fridays. Would you also say the same about them?

History Speaks

History Speaks

The attack on the Israeli soccer fans is deplorable and assailants must be prosecuted. It is entirely possible that Israeli soccer fans who did absolutely nothing wrong were assaulted. And even if someone was engaged in racist sloganeering ("Fuck Arabs!") and property vandalism (climbing homes to tear down Palestinian flags) he shouldn't have been attacked, and any assailants should be prosecuted. But you are, I am terribly sorry to say, not only wrong but exposing yourself as a completely unserious person if you call this a "pogrom" given the openly racist and illegal behaviour that provoked it. These guys were literally chanting "fuck arabs" and destroying Arab-Dutch property (Palestinian flags, etc). (There are reports of more extreme behaviour, such as an assault of an Arab taxi driver, though I cannot find proof of them and therefore do not base my analysis here on them.) The racist and illegal behaviour of many of the Israeli fans, not their ethnic background, is what ultimately triggered some Arab Dutch to make the terrible mistake of attacking them. The latter are responsible for their stupid and cruel actions and should be criminally prosecuted, and it is entirely possible that Israelis who did nothing wrong - i.e. were not among those chanting racist slogans and vandalizing property - were assaulted. I very much hope there are no serious injuries much less fatalities. In closing, let's try an analogy. Suppose a bunch of white fans of the Green Bay Packers in the US went to inner city Chicago after a football game and many of them started yelling slogans against blacks (specifically saying "fuck blacks", as many of the soccer hooligans said "fuck Arabs") and vandalizing their property. Then a group of African American attacked the white Green Bay fans. Would this be an anti-white pogrom or hate crime?