European leaders continue to demonstrate a troubling inability to reckon with the lessons of their nations’ bloody pasts. Instead of confronting the resurgence of antisemitism and intolerance, some capitulate to the demands of radical ideologies, avoiding accountability and mislabeling violent hatred against Jewish communities.
Earlier this week, two incidents underscored this alarming trend. In Amsterdam, Mayor Femke Halsema withdrew her characterization of violent attacks against Israeli soccer fans as a “pogrom.” She claimed the term was a propaganda tool wielded by the Israeli government to discriminate against the city’s Muslim residents. The word “pogrom,” derived from Russian, refers to violent, organized assaults aimed at persecuting and massacring ethnic or religious minorities – most notably, Jews in Eastern Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite knowing these attacks were a coordinated effort to harm Israeli tourists, Halsema reframed them as mere “hit-and-runs,” a grotesque minimization. Her justification? That using the term “pogrom” might alienate Moroccan and Muslim residents.
This is a familiar pattern: Violence against Jews is dismissed, downplayed, or reframed.
Why is antisemitism perpetually excused or disguised as something else?
History provides a grim precedent.
A lesson from European history
The Spanish Inquisition was rationalized as a defense of Catholic orthodoxy. The Dreyfus Affair was framed as patriotic vigilance against supposed foreign threats. Pogroms in Russia were blamed on economic discontent. Even Kristallnacht, the Nazis’ orchestrated assault on Jewish communities, was grotesquely portrayed as a spontaneous reaction to the assassination of a German diplomat by a Jewish teenager. And the Farhud, a massacre of Iraqi Jews, was initially excused as political chaos amid British interference. Time and again, antisemitic violence has been repackaged as a response to broader grievances, with the victims erased or vilified.
The same erasure was evident days after Halsema’s comments, this time in Germany.
Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik warned Jews and LGBTQ+ individuals to conceal their identities in certain neighborhoods with large Arab populations, acknowledging the presence of individuals in these areas who openly support terrorist groups and are hostile toward Jews.
While her concern may stem from a desire to protect vulnerable groups, such advice – however well-intentioned – shifts responsibility onto the victims. It echoes an age-old, intolerable message: Hide who you are, adapt to hate, or face the consequences.
How did we get to a point where Jews and LGBTQ+ individuals in Europe are being told to hide their identities to avoid assault? Why are violent extremists permitted to dictate the terms of public life in democratic societies?In Amsterdam, the brazenness of the attacks – their open, public nature – reveals a chilling confidence among perpetrators that they will not face meaningful repercussions. They are correct. The reluctance of authorities such as Halsema to label these incidents for what they are – a pogrom – signals to attackers that their actions will be excused or ignored.
It is no wonder Europe faltered against Nazism. If European leaders cannot even stand up to today’s radicals, how can they ever claim moral authority over their own history?
Rather than warning Jewish and gay residents to live in fear, German authorities should focus on ensuring the safety of their citizens. That means arresting and prosecuting those who perpetuate violence. A democracy cannot allow hate and aggression to dictate public behavior. Intolerance must be met with zero tolerance. If certain European countries continue to capitulate to this level of bigotry, what example does that set for the rest of the Western world? How long before this complacency spreads?
A failure to act decisively today risks allowing history’s darkest chapters to repeat themselves. Europe must learn to call antisemitism and intolerance by their names and fight them with the moral courage they have too long lacked.
The writer is the co-founder and CEO of Social Lite Creative, a digital marketing firm that specializes in geopolitics.