FM Sa’ar slams Amsterdam mayor for backtracking on use of word ‘pogrom’ to describe antisemitic violence

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar blasts Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema for saying on a panel that she regrets using the word “pogrom” to describe violence against Israeli soccer fans earlier this month.

“The statement made by the Mayor of Amsterdam is utterly unacceptable,” writes Sa’ar on X. “The failure that occurred on that night must not be compounded by a further grave failure: a cover-up.”

“Hundreds of Israeli fans who came to watch a football match were pursued and attacked, targeted by a mob asking for their passports to check if they were citizens of the Jewish state,” says Sa’ar. “There is no other word for this than a pogrom.”

The day after the game between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, Halsema said in a press conference that “boys on scooters crisscrossed the city looking for Israeli football fans. It was a hit-and-run. I understand very well that this brings back the memory of pogroms.”

Yesterday, she accused Israel of using the word as “propaganda.”

“I have seen how the word ‘pogrom’ became very political, propaganda, in fact,” she said. “The Israeli government speaks of a Palestinian pogrom on the streets of Amsterdam, Dutch politicians use the word ‘pogrom’ to discriminate against Moroccan residents, Muslims. That is not what I meant and that is not what I wanted.”

“The application of the term ‘pogrom’ was not an Israeli invention,” Sa’ar fires back.  It was used by Dutch politicians who recognized the severity and antisemitic nature of the incident.”

“We will never again accept the persecution of Jews on the soil of Europe or anywhere else!”