Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Saturday 9 November 2024

Robert Jenrick - Dutch No Master

Last week, there was a Europa League football match hosted by Ajax Amsterdam; their opponents were Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv. So far, so procedural, except that after the match, accusations of anti-Semitism were made, together with talk of a modern-day pogrom. Supporters of the visiting side were portrayed as victims. And then those accusers fell silent.


Why that should be was not hard to see: as Ian Fraser put it, “A pogrom is an organised massacre of an ethnic group e.g. of Jews in Russia and eastern Europe in the late 19th & early 20th centuries. The photo shows an Israeli football hooligan tearing a Palestinian flag off a Dutch person’s home in the 21st century”. It was not the only piece of bad behaviour by those supporters.

Ori Goldberg summed up the mindset that led to talk of pogroms: “Israeli football fans go on a rampage in Amsterdam, tearing down Palestinian flags and shouting racist slogans … Then, of course, we are surprised. How is it that when we do such things we suffer the consequences? How is it that we are attacked? How is it that the Dutch police doesn't recognize that we are on a mission for peace, that we are good while they must be bad?”.

There was more. “Events last night in Amsterdam are presented as a ‘pogrom’ here in Israel. We do not occupy the same plane of existence as the rest of you. Our actions have no implications. We can never be the cause of anything. Everything happens to us. Only we are real. Murderous solipsism”.

Ben Sellers pointed out that supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv had been involved in violence in Athens a few months ago. Rafael Shimunov confirmedThey're engaging in [the] theater of ‘victimhood’, supporting a historically violent, racist fanbase who came to [the] Netherlands to assault and incite violence against Arabs, then flipping it to claim the reprisals and anger in return are simply targeting Jews”. And then came Robert Jenrick.


Jenrick, a deeply immodest individual with much to be modest about, had already tried his luck as he dribbledMeet Jason Hoganson. Jason was jailed for hitting his ex-girlfriend. Keir Starmer let him out early. Within hours of his release, the police got another call, saying he’d assaulted her yet again. Now he’s on the run. Who could have seen that coming?” Maybe Jenrick could.

Especially as the Labour “40% of sentence” early release excludes crimes such as that described. Hoganson had been released after 50% of his sentence had been served, a move introduced by the previous Tory Government, of which Jenrick had been an unswerving supporter.

Having demonstrated his less than consistent relationship with reality, Jenrick then turned to the disturbances in Amsterdam, claimingThese weren’t ‘clashes’. It was a modern-day pogrom. And another warning to the West about the consequences of mass migration and failed integration. Wake up before it’s too late”. The BBC’s report was not good enough for him.

That’s the same BBC report that resorts to using the infamous phrase “on both sides”. The responses to Jenrick’s crude Islamophobic opportunism showed that this was a campaign destined to not necessarily to his advantage, with comments such as “You’re an idiot”, “You’re a nutcase”, and “You lost to Kemi Badenoch. Best sit this one out” standing out.

No use waiting for Robert Jenrick at Barking. He’s beyond there already.


Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The BBC is the worst and most hypocritical of all far right corporate media "news" pedlars. From top to bottom it is infested with mealy-mouthed lying tory cowards. Everything shameful about British media. Small wonder it produces the likes of Huw Edwards and Kuenssberg.

Entirely appropriate for a nation that long ago sold its soul to far right red, blue and yellow toryism.

Gulliver said...

I have to say that expecting everyone to both disbelieve the evidence of their own eyes and ears as well as pretend not to understand the concept of "football hooliganism" and all that it entails is very much a "Honest Bob" position to take.

Many people have experience of this sort of thing, they know very well that when a gang of football "fans" rock up to an away fixture and start behaving like ar$eholes, then they also know that at some point along the way they're going to the shit kicked out of them. Describing this commonplace occurrence as a pogrom is both very silly and also makes people begin to question what else coming out of the mouths of people like Jenrick might be complete BS.

Anonymous said...

Well, all our hoolies know what to do now! Drape yourself in an Israeli flag, and you cause as much mayhem as you like. No more being called 'the English disease', or 'mindless thugs'. No, anyone who calls 'thuggery' will be instantly branded an 'anti-Semite'! Lifes latest get out of jail free card...

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

France v Israel in the European (!) Nations League in Paris next Thursday.

Given the number and quality of North African-origin players traditionally in the French team, it would be nice to see France allow Israel to go one goal up in the first 5 minutes and then, citing their right to defend themselves and using current Israeli standards of appropriateness and proportionality, blast 44 goals past Israel in the most brutal and humiliating manner they can think of.
At the end of ninety minutes the French players should continue to score and refuse to stop playing. When the referee attempts to intervene quoting the rules of the game and simple humanity he should be condemned as a Francophobe by all right-thinking nations. Jenrick, Starmer and Biden could do the post-match interviews.

Good idea? Or would this only really work if UEFA insisted that 7.7 of the Israeli team (70%) be selected from Israel’s Women and Under 11 squads? And any Israeli medical staff attempting to attend to injured Israeli players be beaten to a pulp in a traditional CRS tear gas attack and baton charge.

Anonymous said...

Unlike Turkey, the state of Israel is not even partly attached to continental Europe. Israel is in the Arabian Peninsula. Yet it is allowed to compete in UEFA.

It is also an expansionist racist colonial state guilty of mass murder, genocide, apartheid and land theft. It has been condemned in almost 200 UN resolutions and is indicted by the ICJ for war crimes.

Other countries have been banned from UEFA and international competitions for less.

Anonymous said...

It's not just the BBC. It's all corporate media. The obvious lies and propaganda would be hilariously funny if it wasn't for the lethal tragedies they help create.

Anonymous said...

Here's how Sky "News" dealt with it:


https://youtu.be/pTFovHpft5M?feature=shared

James said...

Top tip to the people of Newark:

Make your feelings known about Jenrick, by creating in word, Posters featuring Mickey Mouse and Tom Jerry stating "Robert Jenrick is a tw@t".

And put them all around town.

If people were to look up why the two cartoon characters are stating this, they would be shocked, yet agree yes Robert Jenrick is a tw@t.

Anonymous said...

Ome Bender, who is just 14, is a better journalist than the Walter Duranty's who run the BBC and Sky.

Mr Larrington said...

I'm hoping for their supporters to try similar behaviour in Paris and come up against the CRS.

Anonymous said...

Britain no longer employs journalists. It appoints seedy tenth rate yesmen and yeswomen. Dishonourable conscience-free hirelings. A reflection of their managers.

Anonymous said...

It's a lottery choice which is the worst far right propaganda parrot croak or look.

Among the front runners are the comedy elocuted-to-death tones of Fiona* Bruce and the grotesque smirk of Matt "bought-and-paid-for" Frei. Both of them secure because of standard craven "reporting".



*It WOULD be a "Fiona".