Amsterdam mayor says she regrets use of word ‘pogrom’

The Mayor of Amsterdam has said she regrets using the word ‘pogrom’ to describe the attacks on Israeli football fans in the Dutch capital following the match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax.

Speaking at a press conference on the day following the match, Halsema had said “Boys on scooters crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli football fans, it was a hit and run. I understand very well that this brings back the memory of pogroms.”

But Halsema has now rowed back on her use of the term, claiming it had been manipulated to serve political agendas both nationally and internationally.

“I must say that in the following days I saw how the word pogrom became very political and actually became propaganda. The Israeli government, talking about a Palestinian pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam. In The Hague, the word pogrom is mainly used to discriminate against Moroccan Amsterdammers, Muslims. I didn’t mean it that way. And I didn’t want it that way,” Halsema told Dutch state media on Sunday.

Asked whether she would use the term again, Halsema said “I did not make a direct comparison but said that I could imagine the feeling. And with that I wanted to express grief. But I am not an instrument in a national and international political fight.”

The mayor has criticised local security services for their failure to anticipate the violence, saying “That information was not known to me…The story of a racist club was never properly told to me.”

She also condemned Israel for its swift portrayal of the incident as an attack on Israelis, despite prior behaviour by Maccabi supporters in which they chanted anti-Arab slogans and tore down Palestinian flags.

“We were completely caught off guard by Israel. At 3am, (Israeli) Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu was already giving a lecture about what happened in Amsterdam, while we were still gathering the facts,” she said in Sunday’s interview.

The football match violence has rocked the Dutch government, with country’s finance secretary announcing her resignation on Friday following comments by Hard-right Dutch political leader Geert Wilders.

Wilders last Wednesday blamed Moroccans for the attacks on Israeli football fans, claiming that “we saw Muslims hunting Jews” and added it was fuelled by “Moroccans who want to destroy Jews.” He said those convicted of involvement should be deported if they have dual nationality.

Announcing her resignation, Morocco-born Nora Achahbar of centrist New Social Contract party said that “the polarising manners have had such an impact on me that I could, or would, no longer fulfil my role as state secretary.”

“Polarisation in society is dangerous because it undermines the bond between people. Because of that, we start seeing each other as opponent instead of fellow citizens,” she said in a statement.