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We condemn the horrifying pogrom that took place on 8 November in Amsterdam, the home of Anne Frank, a young girl whose diary and death during the Holocaust have impacted many.

Not only that, but it was also on the eve of the 86^th anniversary of Kristallnacht in Germany and Austria that was the spark that lit the Holocaust, even though it was preplanned as this pogrom appears to have been.

In Amsterdam, Jews were hunted down, thrown into the river, beaten unconscious, stabbed, and rammed by cars. Men, women and children were attacked. Some have been kidnapped and are missing.

They were Israelis in Amsterdam for a soccer match and were attacked by pro-Palestinian groups, some reported to be Arab migrants. The excuse given was Israel’s defence against the October 7 attack and Israel’s attempt to prevent its reoccurrence and rescue the hostages.

Generations of Hatred

Some Israelis were hospitalised, and the Israeli government has flown two planes to the Netherlands to take the Israelis home and has requested the Dutch government help them to get safely to the airport. The Israelis have been instructed to stay in their hotels and not wear anything identifying them as Jews.

This has shades of Nazi Germany, but the baton of Nazi hate of Jews and determination to annihilate them and wipe them off the map has been passed on to the pro-Palestinian movement.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, was an admirer of and worked with Hitler and worked to prevent a Jewish state, promoting Arab nationalism and, later, Palestinian nationalism.

There is a false narrative that the Palestinians who are Arabs are Indigenous to Israel. Arabs are Indigenous to Saudi Arabia, and Jews are Indigenous to Israel. An earlier name for Israel was Judah, which is where the name Jews came from.

Israel is not a colonial settler state. The state of Israel, reformed in 1948, was an amazing case of decolonisation after centuries of being ruled by many colonial powers though there had always been a Jewish remnant living there.

Horrifying History

On the anniversary of Kristallnacht, 9-10 November, we remember the brave stand of William Cooper, an Aboriginal Australian, and the Australian Aborigines’ League, who, while they were not citizens in their own land, made a protest march to the German Consulate in Melbourne to protest Kristallnacht on 6 December 1938.

On Kristallnacht, gangs of Nazi paratroopers destroyed 7,000 Jewish businesses, set fire to more than 900 synagogues, killed 91 Jews and deported some 30,000 Jewish men to concentration camps.

It is called the Night of Broken Glass because of the shattered windows of Jewish homes and businesses. It also shattered lives. You can read more about it in Barbara Miller’s book Shattered Lives, Broken Dreams: William Cooper and Australian Aborigines Protest Holocaust, which is half-price from 9 November to 6 December.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.