
Amsterdam Car Torched After Wave of Anti-Jewish Attacks Across Europe
Following a string of five alleged terrorist attacks across Europe, four of which targeted Jews, a car was torched in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. Two minors were arrested Tuesday in connection with the incident. No injuries were reported.
Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) claimed responsibility for the previous attacks. A journalist for a local paper posted a video showing two possible perpetrators fleeing from a burning car after dousing it with liquid. The video included a statement proclaiming that Antwerp was targeted for its “large Zionist community … [as] revenge for the blood of Palestinians” and that “operations will continue and intensify until the liberation of our occupied lands on beloved Palestine.”
The journalist, Bruno Struys, also reported that a local security service called Shmira said the fire was discovered and extinguished last night by a volunteer patrol.
Referring to the decision to deploy soldiers to protect Antwerp’s Jewish community, which arrived on the streets this week, Belgium’s defense minister, Theo Francken, posted, “Our military personnel are arriving none too soon. Requisition was the right decision.”
The defense ministry had published a report earlier this month following the March 9 attack near a synagogue in Liege, Belgium, that pointed to HAYI’s dissemination of propaganda that “spread quickly on Telegram channels affiliated with Shi’ite militant networks and pro-Iranian circles, including channels linked to Hezollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).”
Israel, along with other Western countries, has pointed the finger at Iran, accusing the terror-sponsoring regime of gathering intelligence on Jewish locations for the purposes of terror attacks. Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel said that the Netherlands was investigating Iran’s role in the recruitment of four teenagers responsible for a blast outside a synagogue in Rotterdam.