“If Europe had a real interest in fighting anti-Semitism, instead of delegitimizing the justice movement for Palestine and censoring any criticism of Israel, it would be addressing the fact that fascist, racist and neo-Nazi sectors continue to expand,” he points out. Shachaf PolakowIsraeli anti-Zionist activist in conversation with this newspaper.
“The Nazi logic is still there: white supremacy, using another people as a scapegoat for their own fears and traumas. The same gaslight that was used then against the other Jew is used today against the other Arab,” he highlights. Aydin YidizTurkish-German activist whom we have interviewed in Público.
Gaslighting is the type of psychological abuse in which one person intentionally manipulates another person to make them doubt their own perception, memory or sanity. It is carried out by distorting facts, denying past events or presenting false information in order to disorient and control the victim. It usually occurs in contexts of emotional abuse, systemic violence, and in asymmetrical power relationships.
Europe converted into a new “anti-Semitic pogrom”: this is the scenario drawn by the Israeli authorities after the eClashes between supporters of the Israeli club Maccabi and Ajax Amsterdam on November 7. According to this version, the Israeli State was forced to send rescue planes to save its citizens from the threats of extermination that plague the Dutch streets.
What actually happened?
The reality, however, is different, no matter how many fictions a State embarked on a genocide that has caused and continues to cause unprecedented devastation. According to Amsterdam city police, “Maccabi fans tore a flag from one of the city’s main streets and vandalized a taxi. In Dam Square, they set fire to a Palestinian flag and chanted ‘Death to the Arabs’ slogans.” .
So, we are not crazy, Amsterdam police confirms that we were right
??@GayatriGalloway? pic.twitter.com/ALlTLQNjKS
— Arnold August (@Arnold_August) November 9, 2024
There are hundreds of direct testimonies and graphic evidence that through social networks show the reality of what happened that night: another episode of an Israeli football culture characterized by its extremely violent nature. According to Rafael Shimunov, host of Beyond The Pale FMwhich defines itself as a radio station of the Jewish left from New York, “in Israeli football both xenophobia against foreign teams and violence between Israeli teams are rampant, with fans of a team frequently shouting for the “Shoá (holocaust) for the opposing team.” This violence is, according to a report by the New Israel Funda reflection of current Israeli society itself.
Those who maintain that Maccabi fans are somehow victims “are participating in a theater of victimhood, supporting a historically violent and racist fan base that came to Holland to attack and incite violence against Arabs, and then turn around and claim that the reprisals and outrage in response are directed at the Jews,” adds Shimunov.
“This is neither new nor has it only happened here. A few months ago, dozens of Israeli hooligans attacked and kicked a young man of Arab origin after a soccer match in Athens,” he emphasizes.
In case there was any doubt about the violent and racist nature of this group of people, the fans themselves made it clear on their return to the airport, celebrating the genocide of the population of Gaza with this song:
“The Israeli army will screw the Arabs. Why are the schools closed in Gaza? Because there are no children left!”
It bugged me that I couldn’t find a video of the entire genocidal song, but then came Maccabi Tel Aviv fans: they arrived at Ben Gurion airport, fleeing from the fake pogrom, and started singing the entire song…
Ole ole
Ole ole ole
Let the IDF win and fuck the Arabs
Hey hey… pic.twitter.com/0ZVw1hIvs9— BM (@ireallyhateyou) November 8, 2024
Celebrate a genocide and display a theater of victimhood
It is difficult to listen to these atrocities and not link them to the constant flow of images of soldiers that have been floating around social networks for years, even more so since October 7, 2023. Soldiers of similar ages to those of the fans, with similar expressions on their faces. faces, knowing they go unpunished, celebrating the pain they inflict on others. The violence that Israel exercises, its absolute absence of honor and dignity in war and in football, is part of a continuum that encompasses all areas and expressions of the State, inside and outside its borders.
That those who execute and celebrate a genocide simultaneously display a theater of victimhood can only be understood as gaslighting, or an attempt to show that reality is exactly the opposite of what the data shows. “They want to make us believe that we are crazy,” It is a phrase that is repeated among those who experienced the attacks by Israeli fans in Amsterdam. A manipulation that Israel cannot exercise without help. It requires the support of other States, including a good part of Western and European governments.
“The Government condemns the attacks on Maccabi CF fans recorded last night in Amsterdam. Spain categorically rejects anti-Semitism anywhere and under any circumstances” published by the Spanish government a few hours after the altercations, delving into the fiction constructed by the Israeli State.
“You have to live in another dimension to launch this shit that no one has asked of you, defending a gang of fascist criminals who robbed houses in Amsterdam, shouted racist slogans, attacked Dutch citizens and mocked the victims of Valencia,” responded the philosopher César Rendueles on his Twitter-X account.
The same pattern of violence and manipulation that allowed the Holocaust
Spain is not the most flagrant example of this form of gaslighting exerted on citizens, who see one reality before their eyes while listening to their representatives draw another. Other European contexts are responsible for taking this manipulation to grotesque limits. Perhaps the most striking reaction is that of King William of the Netherlands, author of the following statements: “We failed the Jewish community during World War II, and we failed them again last night.”
According to Shachaf Polakow, anti-Zionist Israeli and member of the collectives activestills and Shoreshwhom we interviewed for this article, “King William has broken all records of cynicism. Another example of the hypocrisy of Europe, which did everything possible to get rid of the so-called “Jewish problem”, did not assume its responsibility for the damage caused, and now resorts to the easy route of unconditionally supporting Israel to demonstrate that they are not “anti-Semitic.”
Polakow maintains that if Europe had a real interest in fighting anti-Semitism, “instead of delegitimizing the justice movement for Palestine and censoring any criticism of Israel, it would be addressing the fact that fascist sectors continue to expand throughout the continent, racists and neo-Nazis. In some countries, including Germany, 25 percent of the votes have gone to parties close to Nazi ideology,” he points out.
“While they’re talking about pogroms, let’s address the ones that actually exist,” adds Polakow. “There are hundreds of pogroms in Palestinian cities like Al Birehwhere its inhabitants are frequently attacked by armed Jewish settler militias. They burn their cars, crops, cause serious damage to the population. Neither the Israeli nor the European media usually pay much attention to these pogroms, and it is not by mistake, it is usual.”
Delving into the German case, Aydin Yidiz, Turkish-German activist and co-founder of the internationalist collective From the Periphery with whom we have spoken by telephone, maintains that support for Israel is part of the same pattern of violence that made the Holocaust possible in the last century. “Germany did not deal with its past through an in-depth process, getting to the root of where it went wrong and how to fix it. A century later, the Nazi logic is still there: white supremacy, scapegoating another people. their own fears and traumas. And of course, the same gaslight that was used then against the other Jew is used today against the other Arab.”
Yidiz adds that “what Israel is doing today, before our eyes, is so unbearable, so hard to fathom, that simply admitting that it is real would require recognizing that German support for Israel is an extension of the same pattern that allowed the Holocaust”.
The activists interviewed agree in also pointing out the responsibility of a good part of the Western media in this great manipulation of reality that criminalizes the victims and victimizes the criminals. Something that the special rapporteur for the United Nations also emphasizes Francesca Albanese:
“Many Western media outlets should be investigated for their role in covering up Israeli atrocities. In other contexts, international courts have concluded that media figures were responsible for complicity in genocide, incitement and other international crimes.”
Organizations like Erev Rav, which defines itself as a collective of anti-Zionist Jews in the Netherlands, focused on Judaism beyond Zionism, issued this statement about what happened in Amsterdam:
“The way the media portrays these events as an unprovoked anti-Semitic attack on peaceful football fans does not reflect the full context. Visiting fans engaged in provocative behaviour, destroying private property, intimidating passers-by, carrying flares, congregating in the center of the city and launching racist and violent chants directed at the locals. Many were recently discharged soldiers, who have participated in the genocide in Gaza. Their behavior during the match was equally. controversial, as they refused to observe the minute of silence for the victims of the floods in Valencia. We cannot participate in violent and disruptive actions and then cry ‘anti-Semitism’ to avoid accountability. Our identities do not exist to absolve our actions. “We are greatly alarmed by this instrumentalization of Jewish security.”
The group, in view of the security risks posed by Maccabi fans being able to remain in Amsterdam and the violence that their presence entails, has also announced that cancels its annual commemoration in honor of Kristallnacht victims, or Kristallnacht.
““No to the instrumentalization of anti-Semitism”
Anti-Semitism is a problem serious enough not to be instrumentalized or trivialized for the benefit of a State responsible for crimes against humanity. The narrative that seeks to equate all criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism not only distorts the fight against true anti-Semitic discrimination, but also prevents a critical analysis of the policies that perpetuate violence in the region. The governments and media that participate in this distortion of the facts, in addition to betraying their citizens, contribute to the legitimization of a genocide, covering up atrocities under a cloak of false victimhood.
In the face of those who want to make people believe that day is night and lies are true, the streets of Europe continue to be full of people who refuse to accept these manipulations. The protests against the genocide, the denunciations of the complicity of governments and companies, the solidarity of diverse groups, including many Jewish communities, deactivate attempts at manipulation. “No to Zionist thugs, no to the instrumentalization of anti-Semitism, no to genocide,” chanted protesters in Amsterdam, a cry that represents many people, all over the world.
Amsterdam defends the ban on protest. We say no to zionist thugs, no to weaponizing antisemitism, no to genocide pic.twitter.com/fyHAXvMfXQ
—Harry Pettit ???? (@HarrygPettit) November 10, 2024
#Israel #Europe #gaslight
