New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres blasted Mehdi Hasan after the former MSNBC anchor cast the vicious attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam as the work of “hooligans,” not antisemites.
Torres, who has bucked many in his party with his unapologetic pro-Israel stance, didn’t mince words Sunday in an Instagram post responding to Hasan seemingly downplaying the attacks, which left at least 20 to 30 fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv team injured and hundreds more terrorized.
“Mehdi Hasan is justifying a pogrom against Jews in Amsterdam,” Torres posted on Instagram Sunday. “Yet make no mistake: mainstream media will continue platforming Hasan because America no longer treats antisemitism as a moral line that should never be crossed.
“A society that fails to stigmatize antisemites will get more of them.”
The broadside against Hasan came after the progressive journalist, who still frequently appears on cable news after being ousted from his MSNBC hosting gig, responded to President Joe Biden calling the attacks antisemitic.
Hasan, in a Nov. 8 post on X, argued that soccer “hooligans” before Maccabi’s match with the Dutch team AFC Ajax had torn down a Palestinian flag and chanted anti-Arab slogans.
“Oh, and it’s you and your administration that helped kill 16,000 Palestinian kids,” Hasan wrote in response to Biden. “That’ll be your legacy.”
After a backlash, Hasan wrote in a subsequent post that he opposes all violence whether pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli. He contended Israeli soccer fans weren’t minding their own business, but had provoked violence through their own “racist” actions.
Dutch officials detained 63 people following the attacks last week, which prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send planes to evacuate his country’s citizens from the Netherlands.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the incident “shocking and despicable,” while Israeli officials accused outlets such as the New York Times and Reuters as sanitizing a pogrom.
