Anti-Semite of the Week – Femke Halsema

Dear Friends,

I’m delighted to share that these opinion pieces reach beyond our distinguished circle of WIZO members to The Jerusalem Post’s broader readership.

I’ve included a few links below this weeks piece for your enjoyment.

The Anti-Semite Corner of the Week

They Don’t Understand Until They’re Conquered

The naivety of Amsterdam’s mayor and her dismissive attitude toward attacks on Jews in her city’s streets should be very concerning. But less for us, more for them.

By: Anat Vidor, WIZO President

For several hours, gangs took over the city streets, hunting down defenseless Jews at every corner. I’m not talking about Sderot, but about Amsterdam, where after a soccer match between the local Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, there was a pre-planned attack by Arab rioters who caught soccer fans from Israel to humiliate them, stab them, throw them in the river, and “teach them a lesson.” The Dutch police stood by and watched. No arrests, no charges, just a few modest fines for “disturbing the peace.”

The one who wasn’t moved by these events was Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema. “This isn’t a pogrom – this is Israeli propaganda,” she reported to her electorate, which includes about 150,000 Muslims – 17% of all voters in her city.” Maccabi fans also acted violently” she added. Her audience particularly enjoys when, in the end, the Jew is blamed for their own assault. According to Halsema, there are no culprits here at all; it’s just an innocent brawl between fans, where post-game fighting is part of the viewing experience.

Halsema, recipient of the “Torbeka” award for political expression, is a seasoned and skilled politician, well-versed in European hypocrisy and feigned innocence, with a developed political sense and understanding of appeasing large constituencies. From her perspective, what’s the big deal? A few Jews were beaten on the street? “Oh dear!” It’s hard not to flip back eighty years, to the mayor then, who surely said: “They took some city residents and put them on trains? It’s not because they’re Jews! They took Anne Frank? Well, she also used violence.”

But this week, a creature called “Marwan Abd al-Hamid,” who humbly calls himself “Saint Levant,” emerged. He’s an Arab rapper with Gaza roots who, during his performance in Amsterdam, briefly stopped his gentle music, stood before the cheering crowd holding a PLO flag, and said what Halsema couldn’t say herself: “This isn’t the first time they (the Jews) come to a country that isn’t theirs and start shit. So thank you for handling business.”

He said this and went back to singing. By the way, he wasn’t later arrested for inciting terrorism – Amsterdam is a safe space for thinkers like him and Arab rioters in general.

As Jews, we should have asked this terrorism supporter the “Jewish Question”: “If Jews have no rights from the river to the sea, and if Tel Aviv is occupied territory, and if they should be attacked in Europe, and they don’t dare approach Arab countries… where can a Jew live?” But anti-Semitism has no answers; it’s a religion of hatred, based not on logic but on fanaticism and violence with a thin coating of empty slogans.

But Halsema should have also directed a question at the rapper. Because if the Jews “again came to a country that isn’t theirs” – are the rioters the true owners of the country, defending it from foreign invaders? And that’s the problem: these Dutch people, again, don’t understand until they’re conquered. And how else can one explain, in the simplest terms, to Halsema, and to Hilda, and to Hendrik, and to Franz, that Amsterdam is changing ownership, and that at the end of this process, their grandchildren will have to convert to Islam or pay protection money?

The sanctimonious Halsema doesn’t yet know that anti-Semitism is just the appetizer before the full meal, and that she herself is expected to be on the plate for the main course. Those who embrace Muslim violence and defend it when directed at Jews will later discover that Jews are just the snack along the way.

The future of Amsterdam looks like the exit routes of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from “Johan Cruyff Arena,” which might in the future be called “Marwan al-Hamid Arena.” What should worry the Dutch most is that some of their leadership isn’t worried at all, and the law enforcement system is certain there’s no problem. The Dutch are “reverse Don Quixotes,” seeing windmills where there are monsters, Halsema sees a brawl where there’s a pogrom, and “mischievous troublemakers” where there are organized terror gangs.

In Israel, a mayor’s authority is limited to administrative matters, lobbying, and giving speeches at ceremonies. If the garbage is removed from the streets – they’re more or less meeting expectations. In Holland, a mayor apparently has more control over shaping the city and its future. Those who should be worried are not us but the residents of Amsterdam. Because we, after all – return to our country. They, on the other hand, remain with the garbage in their streets.

Source:
https://www.mako.co.il/news-sport/world_soccer-2024_q4/Article-e96e5153c1e3391026.htm
https://www.mako.co.il/news-entertainment/2024_q4/Article-1346f68c0793391027.htm?sCh=31750a2610f26110&pId=173113802

Previous Articles published in The Jerusalem Post:
Nicolas Maduro is lighting a small anti-Semitic bonfire for political gains
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-814131
 
Reginald D. Hunter’s Edinburgh show: A disturbing blend of comedy and antisemitism
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-817166
 
UN’s António Guterres only shows that he’s the Secretary-General of the Arab world
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-820077
 
Kickl’s coded rhetoric is reminiscent of Nazi-led Austria
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-821773
 
Guterres’s hypocrisy: Condemning Israel while shielding aggressors
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-824430