Dear Editor,
The city of Amsterdam has made headlines in newspapers and international news broadcasts in recent days. After the Ajax vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv match on November 7, 2024, supporters in the Dutch capital were chased, abused, and humiliated. Some referred to it as violence, others as a pogrom. No matter what label you attach to it, the behavior is in no way justifiable.
In this article, I provide a counter-narrative to the parrot-like media. Was this violence against, uhhhh … Israelis or the Jews and where did it come from?
I, Ramin, am the host of the podcast called From a Distance. In the first and second episode I discuss the history of Israel and the Jews, and Palestine and the Palestinians. Visit
https://shows.acast.com/from-a-distance to listen to my episodes.
The match
On November 7, 2024, Ajax played against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The police had 800 officers on active to keep everything in order.
A side note: 800 police officers for a football match. Shouldn’t the costs be covered by professional football sector itself, especially for a match where one of the parties is a stock company with profit as its goal?
After the match, things went completely wrong in Amsterdam. Not the Ajax supporters, but it appeared to be Moroccan youth on scooters who chased Israelis and beat or humiliated them.
Characterization of violence
Something stood out to me in the reactions of politicians and media coverage. When the Israeli army used violence against Palestinians, it was initially said that the Jews were the perpetrators. This could no longer be said, because it wasn’t about Jews, but Israelis. Talk shows and other media immediately adopted this terminology.
However, the violence against Israeli supporters was quickly labeled a pogrom. A pogrom is defined as a violent attack against a particular group of people, usually targeting ethnic or religious minorities. By calling the violence a pogrom, you are effectively saying it was against the Jews. But why are the Israeli supporters now suddenly all Jews? Let’s stay consistent and continue referring to the perpetrators of the wartime violence against the Palestinians as Jews.
Underlying current
For years, Jews from all over the world have visited Amsterdam, and this level of violence has not been seen in this form before. Where did this outburst of violence come from? Could it be the Dutch and international politics?
Politics should reflect society, but for years it has been said that politics is becoming increasingly estranged from the people. Citizens increasingly feel disconnected from what they voted for.
The same applies to the stance that the Dutch government and political parties have taken regarding the war in Israel. This stance consists of saying “shame on Israel.” But the Netherlands facilitates the Jews by providing supplies that allow them to oppress the Palestinians.
Mayors themselves are getting tired of the number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations that their municipalities must facilitate. Let alone all those police officers on the streets and behind the scenes. The political parties have no ear for this issue and do not change their course.
Isn’t the politics further alienating itself from its citizens by burying its head in the sand and ignoring what course its citizens really want to follow?
Once again, the Dutch government immediately issued broad apologies to the Jews and hosted an Israeli minister in the Netherlands. Not a critical word about the fact that the violence in Amsterdam is a consequence of the lawless actions by the Jews against the Palestinians – the Jews who have been driving out and slaughtering Palestinians for more than a year now.
Europeans and Arabs
We, Europeans, are loosely connected to each other. For the Arabs, it is different. The Arab people share a long and rich history, shaped by both flourishing periods and times of oppression. This shared past has forged a collective memory and a sense of unity. Although Arab cultures are diverse, they unite in many ways, such as family values, hospitality, and a shared expression in art, music, and literature. These shared cultural elements strengthen the sense of a common identity.
The “Amsterdam Arabs” feel even more connected to the Palestinians than Europeans do. For them, the injustice being done to “their” people in Gaza and the West Bank feels even more intensely than it does for the white European.
Amsterdam violence
Could the outburst of violence by the “Amsterdam Arabs” be an expression of powerlessness, of feeling unheard and not taken seriously by Dutch politics, ultimately leading to taking matters into their own hands?
I am only describing the emotional process here; I am not making a judgment on whether it is good or bad at this point.
In the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, Ukrainian resistance will carry out attacks and sabotage operations. We consider these actions justified. Now, a group of Arabs carries out an action against “their enemy,” and the strongest terms, such as pogrom, are immediately used.
Make no mistake: I do condone any violence … even that in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon by Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, or other countries and organizations. Can I understand that violence is used as an expression of years of pent-up emotion? Yes, I can understand that.
Political stance
It is no coincidence that the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs (Adviesraad Internationale Vraagstukken) has advised the Dutch government to revise its stance on the war in Israel. For more than a year, Israel has been slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Dutch position is no longer tenable and causes disbelief and a sense of injustice among a large part of the Dutch population.
Where the politicians immediately spoke up about the violence in Amsterdam, they should look in the mirror and consider their own role in this.
Ramin Berwers
Dear Editor,
It was with profound sadness and great alarm that I received the news of the tragic death of Asot Michael, the elected representative of St. Peter, possibly due to foul play.
Until the 2023 general elections, Mr. Michael had a long association with the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party, to which he continued to express his commitment. His death is a significant loss for the party, made even more sorrowful by the circumstances surrounding it.
The party will honor Asot Michael's contributions to Antigua and Barbuda in due course. For now, we express our deep sadness at his passing and extend our sincere condolences to his beloved family, friends, and all well-wishers, including members of the Labour Party at every level.
E.P. Chet Greene
Chairman of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP)
Dear Editor,
Trump is best to be elected to be the next president of United States of America from 2024 to 2028, to deal with Russia, North Korea and Iran. l had a dream Donald Trump from the USA, Kier Starmer from the UK, and Emanuel Macron from France was seasoning.
About Russia, North Korea and Iran also many nations and world leaders around the world are monitoring the USA election very closely.
America is one of the great nations. The entire world will be focusing on the USA election 2024.
Cuthbert Bannis
By Andres Oppenheimer
There are more than a dozen reasons why I would never vote for Donald Trump, but let me share with you six big ones that led me to conclude that he is the worst candidate in the Nov. 5 election.
First, Trump is an authoritarian populist who openly scorns America’s basic values of democracy, the rule of law and racial tolerance. He is an English-speaking version of the Third World demagogues that I hoped to leave behind when I moved to this country four decades ago. Trump is essentially un-American, which may explain why he so eagerly wraps himself around the U.S. flag.
He is the first U.S. president in recent memory who encouraged a coup d’Etat after he lost the 2020 elections, and more than 60 courts ruled that his lawyers’ claims of fraud were unfounded. On Jan. 6, 2021, he sat for several hours at his office watching Fox News instead of stopping his followers from attacking the Capitol in an effort to overturn the election. About 140 police officers were injured, and several people died during and after the attack.
But, to this day, Trump not only continues to falsely claim that he won that 2020 election, but calls the Capitol attackers “patriots” and “hostages” of the Biden administration. He said earlier this year that he may pardon all of the Jan. 6 attackers.
More than half a dozen former top members of Trump’s cabinet and closest advisers, including his longest serving chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, are publicly warning that Trump has no respect for the rule of law. “He’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators,” Kelly said. Kelly added that the former president told him that “Hitler did some good things,” and that he wished U.S. generals were more like those who served the Nazi leader.
Even Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence has condemned the former president’s contempt for the Constitution. Mind you, these are not “socialists,” or “communists,” as Trump likes to brand his critics, but hardline conservatives.
Second, while most politicians lie, Trump is the king of falsehoods. Like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio once famously said before he threw away his democratic principles and embraced the former president, Trump “is a con man.” Trump’s entire 2024 campaign pitch is based on two big lies: that undocu-mented immigrants have “invaded” this country and are mostly criminals, and that America’s econo-my is in a shambles.
On immigration, Trump is conveniently omitting the fact that unauthorized crossings fell by 70% this year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency figures. And several studies have shown that undocumented migrants on average commit fewer violent crimes than U.S.-born Ameri-cans.
On the economy, Trump’s claim that the United States “is a failing economy” is ridiculous. The Inter-national Monetary Fund reported on Oct. 22 that the U.S. economy is the best-performing of all rich nations, and is set to drive global growth in 2024 and 2025.
The respected British magazine The Economist reported on Oct. 19 that that the U.S. economy is “the envy of the world.” As I’m writing these lines, the conservative daily The Wall Street Journal is carry-ing a front page headline reading: “The next president inherits a remarkable economy.”
Third, as an immigrant from Argentina myself, I could never vote for a man who has said among other things that immigrants “are poisoning the blood of this country,” and that most Mexican undocu-mented migrants are “criminals” and “rapists”.
Or, for that matter, I can’t support a candidate who is supported by Neo-Nazi groups, or whose fans
applauded a comedian who said last Sunday at a Trump rally that Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage.” That’s not just plain wrong, but dangerous: it encourages racial hatred and hate crimes against immigrants who, in most cases, came to America to make a better living, and do jobs that most Americans don’t want to do.
Fourth, on the economy, Trump’s presidency was very bad, and his current economic plans are even worse. During his term in office, the U.S. economy grew less than under Biden, and the national defi-cit reached a record high. Trump left office with three million fewer jobs than there were when he started his term, while the Biden administration added 16 million jobs to the U.S. economy, according to official figures.
Granted, Trump’s bad economic numbers were partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but so was the rising inflation during Biden’s first two years in office. The U.S. stock market is at a record high, and inflation is now virtually back to its pre-pandemic levels. Fifth, Trump is at the center of four criminal cases related to his business deals and political actions, and has been unanimously convicted by a jury partly selected by his own lawyers in one of them. And yet, the former president attacks his prosecutors saying he would fire them “within two seconds” if elected — and derides the U.S. justice system almost daily. Is that a role model we want to set for our children?
Sixth, Trump is 78 years old and is not immune to cognitive decline. He is already mixing names and making incoherent statements, and would end his term as the oldest president in U.S. history. Just as I wrote about Biden before he stepped aside as the Democratic nominee, there are reasons to think he no longer has the mental agility to perform what may be the world’s most demanding job. It may be no coincidence that Trump has not accepted a second presidential debate with his Democratic rival and Vice President Kamala Harris, and why he has declined an interview with “60 Minutes” and other news outlets that may ask him hard questions.
Many of my Republican friends concede many of these points, but say they will vote for Trump any-way because he supports the one cause they care most about, be it Cuba, or Venezuela or Israel. I don’t buy that line of reasoning, because Trump has no moral compass. As his former chief of staff Kelly and other former aides have said, his admiration for dictators such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un prove that he could easily change course on Cuba, Venezuela Israel or any other issue it if suits his interests.
In short, Trump may win the election, but I don’t see any reason — including his stands on abortion, climate change and automatic weapons — to wish for that outcome. On the contrary, I see plenty of reasons to hope that he’ll lose, and that the Republican party can go back to its tradition of defending democracy, the rule of law and individual freedoms.
Dear Editor,
The struggle between loyalty and infidelity is intensifying, significantly. If the population is not paying attention to the subtle way in which this coalition is being undermined, then maybe I’m the one who is completely blind. From the moment NA and UP were dethroned in the January 2024 elections, there is this relentless determination to regain the power and control that they once enjoyed.
So, they devise their plan to pursue the weakest link, and gently attract the chameleon. Doesn’t this unusual desperation warrant an urgent and an in-depth investigation, to analyse the reason behind their intense desire to get back into power? Never in the history of politics, have I seen such extreme anxiety to return to the Executive branch, and never have I experienced this lack of interest, by the judiciary division, to unravel this conundrum.
It is mind-blowing that only former MP Akeem Arrindell is accused of vote-buying, when others enjoying taxpayers money and racking havoc in parliament. If the judiciary branch was doing its job, those MPs of a particular party would not be in parliament today. And, the makeup of parliament would be totally different. Even Rene Zwart from Holland could see that most politicians are just there to swindle the country.
Unfortunately, Prime Minister Luc Mercelina does not have control of this coalition. He is too busy trying to save the Interim Managing Director Troy Washington of GEBE that he doesn’t even realize that one of his own is being coached by the opposition. Luc Mercelina, pay attention! Do not underestimate that photo with MP Sjamira Roseburg and MP Ardwell Irion. Prime Minister, quit sleeping! This is how the petting starts.
Why didn’t she take a photo with her party colleague, MP Richniel Brug, who supported the same motion on Tuesday last? You have 9 members who support the coalition on paper, but not in reality. NA has already won over the imposter and traitor, MP Ludmila de Weever. Don’t forget that private meeting with her, Irion, Doran and her father. Doesn’t she vote against her own party and the coalition, every single time?
So, what makes you think that she will be the only one to commit this infidelity? What about this extreme jealousy that is brewing, to upset the smooth transition of the proposed successor of the Justice Ministry? Either MP Frankie Myers is sleeping as well, or he is playing a game with the opposition; and so I will speak directly to MP Sjamira Roseburg’s competition, Attorney Nathalie Tackling.
Attorney Tackling, I know that you and MP Ardwell Irion are buddies, and MP Sjamira Roseburg and you are colleagues. But frankly, I do not care about either one of them. Anyone who knows me, is aware that I despise injustice, hypocrisy and liars, to the core. Sad to say that these are the traits that define the nature of the majority of our politicians today. MP Irion is the king cobra in parliament and MP Sjamira Roseburg is the emerging butterfly.
Attorney Nathalie Tackling, if you haven’t done so, I urge you to read the opinion page of “The Daily Herald” of Monday, October 28, 2024. Everything that I’ve stated is factual and I challenge MP Roseburg to dispute any of my statements. Attorney Tackling, you will have to work with both MP Irion and MP Roseburg, but do not trust them. There is a difference between friendship and friendship that is genuine.
Ex-Minister Rudolphe Samuel is a victim of this kind of distrust. The ones who he thought had his back, were the ones who destroyed him. As we are aware, trust is the bond that keeps any relationship intact. Without this vital component, any coalition is bound to disintegrate, whether gradually, or rapidly.
Joslyn Morton
