A modern-day Farhud
As the dark legacy of anti-Jewish violence persists, the Jewish people are bound to endure.
“Suddenly we saw men in uniform jump upon a carriage in which a man was seated, and to our amazement, they began to beat him. A throng immediately gathered, as if the whole affair had been prearranged. The man was then thrown headlong over the back of the carriage, the crowd closed in upon him, and he was in all likelihood killed. This man in this part of the city was possibly the first victim of the planned outbreak against the Jews. Now the violence of the mob was unleashed.” (Emphasis added).
Readers may be forgiven in thinking that this is a witness statement describing the recent antisemitic violence in Amsterdam on the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht. In reality, the passage above is an excerpt of American educator Ida Staudt’s posthumously-published memoirs, written during her time in “Romantic Baghdad.”
The scene Staudt describes is the outbreak of the Farhud, a series of Nazi-backed riots against the Jewish community of Baghdad from 1-2 June 1941. In the space of 2 days, an estimated 179 Jews were killed, 2000 wounded, and 50,000 impacted by targeted looting and property destruction. The Farhud remains one of the bloodiest episodes of anti-Jewish violence in the history of the Middle East. It precipitated the mass exodus of Jews from Iraq during the mid-20th century.
On 7 November 2024, the Farhud came to Europe. After a football (for Americans, soccer) match between the Dutch club Ajax and visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam, Jewish and Israeli fans were hunted and brutally assaulted from the late hours of the night until the early hours of the morning. Footage captured by the assailants showed Jews being threatened, viciously beaten, deliberately hit by moving vehicles, and pushed into the Amstel River. Victims were forced to plead with cries of “I’m not Jewish” and “Free Palestine” in a desperate effort to save themselves.
The perpetrators captured in the footage can be heard shouting in Dutch, French, a Tangier-accented dialect of Moroccan Arabic (Darija), and the variant of indigenous North African Tamazight spoken by Riffian Berbers from northern Morocco. All available evidence points to the attacks being premeditated, a “Jew-hunt” (as their group chats outline) orchestrated by Moroccan youth gangs, some of whom may have travelled from neighbouring Belgium or even northern France to assist their bloodthirsty comrades.
In its sour relations with Europe, the Moroccan Rif is famous for a number of historical contributions: piracy, slave trading, kidnappings, drug trafficking, jihadist recruitment in the 21st century, and much more. In 2008, it was believed that approximately 65% of Moroccans residing in the Netherlands were Riffian, and the number is likely higher today. More than a decade ago, members of the Dutch public were already lamenting the failure of multiculturalism amid an enormous rise in criminal activity and delinquency among Moroccan youth.
It therefore comes as no surprise that the Netherlands-based and Hamas-affiliated PGNL network was able to mobilise hundreds of Moroccan youths to participate in a city-wide pogrom. Ironically enough, the lead organiser was reportedly a Syrian-born activist and former teacher at UNRWA, the UN-backed aid group with documented ties to Hamas. The horrific outbreak of violence constitutes the latest episode of psychological warfare against Jewish communities by jihadist proxies of the Islamic regime in Iran.
Of course, the poisonous alliance of Western leftists and Islamists have only done more of what they do best. They initially celebrated the images, then denied the attacks, then attempted to rationalise them in the wider context of the Israel-Gaza war and the so-called “genocide”, and then they identified a handful of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans chanting racially-charged slogans and destroying a Palestinian flag as the trigger behind the mass violence despite irrefutable evidence that the attacks were pre-arranged.
In this counter-narrative, the Jews are always to blame for their own demise. “How dare they anger the Arabs?”, cries the woke keffiyeh-wearing leftist as the Jew is beaten within an inch of his life. The illiberal logic of self-proclaimed liberals serves only to imprison Jews within the confines of the dhimmi, a medieval Islamic legal status in which freedom of movement and expression is systematically restricted and denied to the non-Muslim. The Jew represents resilience in the face of an unrelenting conqueror, and for this he must be severely punished.
Like the Farhud, attacks on Jews in Amsterdam were premeditated, motivated by deeply antisemitic and anti-Western sentiment, instigated by external sponsors, and intended to inspire mass panic. Like the Farhud, these attacks were justified as a response to Jewish provocation in the form of support for Zionism and Israel. In any event, the conclusion is always the same: the Jews had it coming.
These malicious reversals of truth and obfuscations of reality have become commonplace in the world of today. Their implications extend beyond the theoretical, often placing Jews and other minorities in extreme danger. For example, Parisian authorities are now expected to deploy 4000 police officers to the Stade de France for the upcoming France-Israel football match on 14 November. Prominent Israeli journalist Hen Mazzig has said that he is unsure “whether to feel more reassured that this is happening or heartbroken that it is necessary.” Hen’s internal conflict is certainly shared by many.
What the enemies of freedom don’t realise is that despite their best efforts, violence against Jews doesn’t achieve their long-term aims. They face an opponent who, through centuries of being pushed around, has learned the value of standing firm. Those who encouraged and celebrated the Farhud are long gone. Those who engineered the Holocaust survive only in history books. Against all odds, the Jews they persecuted succeeded in reclaiming their ancestral homeland and flourished in the State of Israel.
Likewise, the despicable criminals who hunted Jews in Amsterdam will continue to live their meaningless lives, only to end up in the dustbin of history where they rightfully belong. We Jews will still be here, rejoicing in their failure to extinguish our light.
Don’t you worry.
Great piece, resolute and poignant. Congrats brother.