Dutch minister steps down after ‘anti-Semitic pogrom’

Nora Achahbar had taken issue with some of her colleagues’ remarks about the rioters who attacked Israeli football fans in Amsterdam last week

The Netherlands’ state secretary for benefits and customs, Nora Achahbar, resigned late on Friday in protest over “racist” language supposedly used by some of her colleagues. The remarks in question were reportedly made with respect to pro-Palestinian mobs that assaulted Israeli football fans in Amsterdam last week.

The rioting in the Dutch capital broke out last Thursday following a Europa League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Netherlands’ Ajax. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the scuffles left at least ten people wounded. Local police stated that five individuals had been hospitalized, with 62 detained in connection with the violence.

Senior Israeli officials denounced the unrest as a “pogrom” targeting Jews.

While Israeli officials were quick to describe the attack as an unprovoked display of anti-Semitism, Amsterdam authorities reported an incident in which a Palestinian flag had been torn down in the city center. Similarly, some social media users and media outlets, including Iranian ones, claimed that the Israelis had been chanting anti-Arab slogans and set fire to a Palestinian flag in the days leading up to the fixture.

In a post on X late on Friday, Achahbar wrote that she had “asked His Majesty the King to grant me his resignation as State Secretary of this Cabinet.”

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That same day, the Dutch government confirmed the state secretary’s departure, adding that the monarch, Willem-Alexander, had relieved Achahbar of her post.

Explaining her decision in a statement to parliament, the official said that the “polarizing interactions of the past weeks made such an impact on me that I am no longer able to effectively carry out my duties as deputy minister.” She, however, stopped short of providing any specifics as to what exactly had elicited that sentiment.

According to Dutch public broadcaster NOS, during a cabinet meeting on Monday devoted to last week’s rioting, “things got heated, and in Achahbar’s opinion racist statements were made.” The state secretary, who is of Moroccan descent, reportedly made it clear that “she, as a minister, had objections to certain language used by her colleagues,” the media outlet reported.

In the wake of the unrest, Prime Minister Dick Schoof denounced the attacks on Israeli football fans as “unadulterated anti-Semitic violence,” perpetrated by individuals “with a migration background,” as quoted by AFP.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing Freedom Party, which forms part of the coalition government, called for allowing the passports of people with dual nationality to be revoked. The politician, known for his tough stance on migration, accused Moroccans of instigating the riots.