Pogrom?

Referring to events in Amsterdam this week as a ‘pogrom’ is, on significant levels, not that much different to referring to events in Gaza as a ‘genocide’. 

Hyperbolic use of analogues does a massive disservice to historical victims. 

That said, one also needs to maintain a keen eye on the qualitative differences. 

If Maccabi fans acted like football hooligans, in terms of chants and small to medium-scale property damage, accompanied by tribalist aggression, this does not justify an escalation to the next level, i.e. mob targeting of a specific cultural-ethnic group — any more than anything about the ‘context’ somehow justified October 7 — or indeed anything about the way the war has been conducted, retroactively. 

‘Football’ contains, sublimates even, many of our worst masculine instincts, but there are certain things that it should never be allowed to provide sanctuary for, under any circumstances.