On Wednesday night, Israeli football hooligans rioted in Amsterdam, tearing down Palestinian flags, attacking Arabs and chanting anti-Gaza slogans. Some clashed with residents of Amsterdam, where a protest was planned against the staging of a match between soccer clubs Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam during the Gaza genocide. Five people were taken to hospital and yesterday the Israeli Foreign Ministry said all the Maccabi fans had been accounted for.

But Washington and European governments responded with a deafening propaganda campaign, calling those who clashed with the hooligans “anti-Semitic.” Although no one was killed, far-right Dutch government strongman Geert Wilders is demanding a police crackdown, supposedly to end a deadly “pogrom” against Jews. Yesterday, at least 62 people were arrested in a wave of arrests across the city.

This propaganda campaign is a set of lies fabricated by governments complicit in genocide through their support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. While they are outraged that five Israeli soccer hooligans were taken to hospital with minor injuries, they support the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden tweeted: “Anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam are despicable and echo dark times in history when Jews were persecuted. We have been in contact with Israeli and Dutch officials and appreciate the Dutch authorities’ commitment to holding the perpetrators accountable. We must relentlessly fight anti-Semitism wherever it appears. »

European governments have made similar comments. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounced the clashes as “intolerable” because they “attack all of us,” and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called them “a terrible anti-Semitic attack.” Likening these clashes to the Holocaust, French President Emmanuel Macron “strongly condemned” the violence which, according to him, recalls “the most horrible hours in history”. In the Netherlands, the press campaign is largely led by Wilders himself.

“A pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam,” Wilders said in a tweet, adding: “Muslims with Palestinian flags are hunting down Jews. I will NOT accept this. NEVER. The authorities will be held accountable for their failure to protect Israeli citizens. Never again.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, said he viewed “the incident with the utmost seriousness.” He demanded “vigorous and rapid action” from the Dutch authorities.