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Transnational Thursday for November 7, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/07/europe/israel-soccer-fans-attacked-amsterdam-intl-hnk/index.html

Israeli soccer fans were attacked in a “serious incident of violence in Amsterdam” overnight into Friday, authorities said, with the Israeli government saying it was sending planes to evacuate affected citizens.

Hundreds of fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team “were ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam” on Thursday night as they left the stadium following a Europa League game against Dutch side Ajax, the Israeli embassy to the United States said on social media platform X.

Social media video shared by the embassy showed what it said was violence against Maccabi fans. CNN has not yet been able to verify those videos.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was in touch with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the “completely unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis.”

“I am in close contact with all those involved. Just now in a call with (the Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu emphasized that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital,” Schoof said in a statement on X.

So there's that. The EU definitely has a problem. To which it is oblivious.

Can someone put together an actual timeline of events here? It is proving very difficult to determine from the articles I've read. Those critical of the maccabi depend on them doing genocidal chants, vandalism, and low level violence prior to the game. Those staunchly on the other side are relying heavily on this being "preplanned" but the only pre planned attack evidence seems to be some messages on social media that they were sent the same day as the attacks? So presumably after the prior maccabi provocation? It's not clear to me.

Obviously mob violence is not justified by chants and vandalism, but if you fly into some other city and stir things up, it's not a pogrom or fitting with a "Europe has an antisemitism problem" when psycho locals escalate. This story seems hopelessly distorted in the news coverage.

I don't know who's right or who's wrong, but the article didn't even say if the Israeli team won the game (which would seem like an obvious trigger for the rioting, football fans being football fans).