Austrian bishop calls antisemitic incident in Amsterdam a ‘deeply alarming sign’

CNA Staff, Nov 8, 2024 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

After a group of Israeli soccer fans were beaten and taunted for being Jewish by groups of young men after a game in Amsterdam, an Austrian bishop condemned the violence, saying it evokes, referring to Kristallnacht, “the darkest and most shameful days of our own history.”

Following a soccer match Thursday night between a Dutch and an Israeli team, at least 10 young men on scooters sought out Israeli fans, verbally and physically assaulting them with punches and kicks, and then quickly fled the scene.

“They shouted ‘Jewish, Jewish, IDF, IDF,’” a 24-year-old victim told the BBC. The IDF, Israel Defense Forces, is the nation’s military. Another victim said the assailants shouted “Palestine” while pummeling him.

Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, characterized the violence as an “eruption of antisemitism,” while Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the attacks “unacceptable” and vowed to hold perpetrators accountable. 

Archbishop Franz Lackner of Salzburg, president of the Austrian bishops’ conference, described the event in a Nov. 8 interview as a “deeply alarming sign.” 

He noted that the incident in Amsterdam happened just days prior to the annual commemorations of Kristallnacht, the brutal pogroms that the Nazis perpetrated against Jews in Germany, the annexed country of Austria, and other Nazi-controlled areas. Throughout Nov. 9–10, 1938, the Nazis vandalized and destroyed hundreds of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.

Lackner called for prayers for peace in Israel and Palestine. He added that any ideology, including religious or political opinion, that permits or justifies violence against Jews has no place in society. 

“We must stand up against this,” he said. 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the incident on social media as an “antisemitic pogrom.” The Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, reportedly called Herzog to apologize for the incident. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government swiftly arranged special flights to evacuate Jewish people from Amsterdam on Friday and Saturday. 

St. Paul VI’s 1962 encyclical Nostrae Aetate made clear the Church’s condemnation of hatred and violence against Jews and Judaism, decrying all “hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone” (Nostra Aetate, 4). 

The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League has been tracking a sharp rise in the number of antisemitic attacks and incidents since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. According to that group, antisemitic incidents surged by more than 350% in the first 100 days after the invasion. 

The majority of those incidents, according to the group’s data, involved either “verbal or written harassment” or “rallies” involving antisemitic rhetoric and “expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism.” Dozens of instances of assault and hundreds of reports of vandalism were also recorded.

For their part, the Catholic bishops of the United States have condemned in recent years what they call a “reemergence of antisemitism in new forms.” In a statement released before the start of the current Israel-Hamas conflict, the bishops called on Christians to join them in opposing acts of antisemitism and reminding the faithful of Christianity’s shared heritage with Judaism.