Ajax and the Jewish Issue
From the desk of... Eric Collier (Le Monde
newspaper, France)
Translation: Bertrand Chardon
February 16, 2005
Should Ajax Amsterdam,
Holland's greatest football club, shed their 'Jewish club'
image because its fans are the target of anti-semitic
attacks?
A burning carcass. That is what remained of the Ajax
Supporters' Home when Ruben arrived on the scene, late at night
on Sunday January 30th. Even before he gave the ruins a closer
look the Ajax supporter had no doubt: fans of ADO Den Haag (the
team they had played that afternoon) were the arsonists... Two
weeks later the police are still investigating.
The two clubs have an old rivalry. They're not alone in the
Netherlands, where the most hardcore supporters - so-called
'siders' - have been engaged in a merciless struggle for a long
time. In March 1997 the fight between gangs of supporters from
Feyenoord and Ajax led to the death of a young man. But the
violence is also verbal. Since a dominant part of the Ajax fans
began proudly calling themselves Joden ('Jews') in
repetitive chants, they've been bombarded with hissing sounds
from their opponents, references to the death camps and
anti-semitic yells.
Although the large part of the Amsterdam followers have no
clue as to what Jewish religion is about, they've had the
curious habit of carrying Jewish symbols for some time.
Before it burnt down the Supporters Home, built adjecent to the
Ajax training pitches, was covered with Israeli flags. Willem,
the barman, wears the Star of David on his T-shirt, as do many
others on their hats or scarves. On match days these F-Siders,
around 5,000 people, shout Joden, Joden ('Jews, Jews')
and wave huge Israeli flags. "These chants are part of our
culture and they're really important to us," explains
Erwin Pieters of the Onafhankelijke Fanclub Ajax (OFA), an
independent fan club. "We call ourselves Jews in order to to
deprive the opposing supporters of the pleasure of calling us
so, as if it were an insult."
The F-Side show their pride just
before Ajax
vs Valencia, February 2003. [Photo: Ajax Foto
Side]
The fans do not understand how their Joden
reputation could ever be a problem. They find themselves
diametrically opposed to Ajax's chairman, John Jaakke, who
wishes to remove the Jewish label, so that the anti-semitic
chants will stop. "Our situation is a paradox," Jaakke
underlines in an open letter from Ajax, dated January 22nd.
"Everybody thinks we're a Jewish club, but in most of the cases
our real Jewish supporters are reluctant to attend our home
games - let alone away games - because of the reactions it
elicits. We have to find a solution for that problem."
Nobody remembers precisely how and when this story, which
can also be regarded as a symbol for the unrest in modern Dutch
society, really begun. In front of the training pitch, a 50
year-old man claims that the yells already
existed back in the old home ground of De Meer, in fact for as
long as he can remember. According to Simon Kuper (author of
Ajax, the Dutch, the War), Israeli symbols appeared in
the early 1980s in the section of the F-Side, the old
stand of the club's hard core, soon after the visit by
Tottenham, a club known for its connection to the Jewish
community of North London. Jewish symbols soon accompanied
the 'Jews! Jews!' yells that replaced the 'Boeren!
Boeren!' ('Farmers! Farmers!'), which that Amsterdam
supporters used to yell at their opponents. Rival
fans soon replied with 'ssssssssssss' (the hissing sound
of gas) and, more recently, 'Hamas! Hamas! The Jews to the
gas!'
For years the phenomenon was never seriously protested
against. The Dutch society thought it was just a problem of
silly football supporters that lacked the most basic education.
But for Rosa van der Wieken-De Leeuw, member of the Amsterdam
city council and co-founder of the Anti-Semitism Network, that
silence was at odds with the Dutch tradition of respect and
open-mindness. "This is not a matter of tolerance, just a
lack of interest. Typically Dutch," she regrets.
For Henk Spaan, journalist for newspaper Het Parool
and founding editor of Hard Gras, an intellectual
monthly about football, those kids try to "create a sort of
folklore, partly to clash with the establishment." "It's
neither anti-semitic or racist," Spaan thinks. "To them, this
has no specific connection to race or religion. They're not
affiliated with any political group or party. I see it as
a brand. They basically say: 'I'm an Ajax supporter, I'm a
Jew'."
The logo used by the
independent
Dapp're Strijders fanzine. [Photo: DappreStrijders.nl]
There have been debates about the alleged Jewish identity of
the club regularly ever since the foundation of the club in
1900. According to historians the Jewish connection was down to
simple geographical facts in the first place: Ajax and the
Jewish neighborhoods were both in the East of Amsterdam. Nobody
would deny the link, though. For the best, but also for the
worst. During World War II, according to Simon Kuper, the club
followed the orders of the Germans very strictly in the
fall of 1941, expelling twelve Jewish players and board
members.
More than fifty years later, the 'Jewishness' is questioned
again. Frits Barend, anchor man of a talkshow on national TV,
belongs to the people to have been annoyed for a long time by
the supporters' behaviour. About ten years ago he told the Ajax
board what he had on his mind. "They were really annoyed that
we were giving such a minor problem that much importance," he
remembers.
Uri Coronel, a former Ajax administrator who lost a part of
his family in the death camps, was one of those annoyed board
members. Since then he's changed his mind. It was him to drive
Jaakke into action three months ago: "One day I was in the
players' bus in Rotterdam before a game. Feyenoord supporters
crammed around the bus and gave us the Hitler's salute," he
explains. "At that very moment I realized that things had gone
too far."
The political context was an important factor, too. The
assassination of Pim Fortuyn (May 6, 2002), who was known for
his nationalist viewpoints was an electroshock to Dutch
society. The assassination of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch film
maker also known for his firm political views, a few months ago
by a young Dutchman of Moroccan heritage, gave the Dutch
society's last illusions of tolerance the death blow. "There
has since then a feeling of emergency in that particular
political field, the people in charge have now realized that we
have a problem, that our country is vulnerable," says Paul
Scheffer, professor of urban sociology at Amsterdam University.
As a specialist in immigration issues he doesn't think that
this move by Ajax is going to solve the problem in the
stadiums. He wonders about the connection between Ajax's
decision and the social tensions of the last few years.
According to statistics the number of anti-semitic acts has
raised from 75 in 1999 to 334 in 2003.
Ajax chairman John Jaakke establishes the link clearly. In
an interview with Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta Dello
Sport he admits that his decision "is probably linked with
the murder of Theo van Gogh". His open letter of January 22nd
mentions the 'tensions in Dutch society'. Curiously, it was a
non-racist incident that drew the nation's attention to the
issue. On September 11th 2004 the fiancé of Ajax player
Rafaël van der Vaart, MTV host Sylvie Meis, was called a
'whore' by Den Haag supporters throughout their game
against Ajax. The 'Sylvie Meis
affair' caused a major stir in Holland.
Many people now regret that the referee did not interrupt the
game, like René Temmink did on October 17th 2004, when
he interrupted the game between PSV and ADO Den Haag due to
constant 'jungle noises' and anti-semitic shouts from the
stands.
"Many people then thought: 'it's gone too far, it has become
way too aggressive, we can't tolerate this anymore'," says
sociologist Paul Scheffer. "This led to a debate on the values
to be defended in the public space. Most of the people now
think that we've been too tolerant for too long, that we
ignored a problem. Now they think that we have to fight such
behaviour, because it's a symbol for what's currently going
wrong in our society as a whole. There is now actually a
debate about the limits of our tolerance."
The Star of David, tattooed on an
Ajax supporter's arm. [Photo: DappreStrijders.nl]
About a month ago, the KNVB published a list of words and
sounds now forbidden in stadiums. Banned are: hissing, jungle
sounds, sheep sounds, the word 'Hamas' and everything referring
to prostitution, genitalia, disease, religious faith and ethnic
groups. In case of chants referring to any of these things,
referees are allowed to call a game off. A decision that the
supporters think is unfeasible.
Facing the new ruling the supporters don't really know how
they should react. They think in silence. But there would be a
solution though: if the president would give them back the old
logo of the club (representing the head of the mythical Greek
hero Ajax) and got rid of the new one (which is, in the
fans' opinion, way too modern) they could think about
making efforts. Waiting for a definitive general stance, they
haven't changed their habits a few days before facing AJ
Auxerre at home.
Apart from the most active groups the other supporters don't
try to hide their feelings: "It's like I have a Star of David
tattooed on my forehead. It's been like that since I begun
supporting the club," testifies Ferry, 52. "In the beginning I
thought it was funny to call ourselves Jews. Then, when I heard
the reactions of our opponents, I started hating it, and now I
don't really care anymore. I just try to ignore the whole
thing." He doesn't understand John Jaakke, though. Right next
to Ferry an old man is observing training with much interest:
"I am Jewish. I don't feel like talking about it."
Unlike most other Jewish supporters of Ajax, Salo
Muller really doesn't appreciate Jaakke's project. "John Jaakke
is wrong about the whole thing," regrets the old masseur of the
Golden Ajax of the 1970s. "Rather than asking his own
supporters to remove their flags and scarves and stop their
chanting, he'd better invite the presidents of the clubs that
cause the problems and urge them to do something! I
mean, we know the source of the problems, who those people are,
let's deny them access to matches and send them back to
school, to learn a few things about the past."
"Our supporters just love their identity, let's just leave
it to them," Muller continues. According to him the racist
tendency is nothing new. It's only the dimension of the problem
that changed: "Back in the 1960s when I was running along the
side line to give medical treatment to an injured player I
often heard: 'You dirty Jew!'" Muller is still an avid
supporter and never misses a home game. "I focus on the game,"
he says. "The ones that decided to not come to the games
anymore did that because of the anti-semitic shouts, not
because of our supporters."
In order to underscore his point Muller shows us a
newspaper clipping: an article from De Telegraaf
quoting Cobi Benatoff, European president of the Jewish World
Congress, in Brussels: "It is really sad that Ajax are trying
to shed the Jewish image. This is a stupid decision. We'd want
the opposite attitude. It is by acting like this that you lose
your identity."
Source: Le Monde / Translated for Ajax USA by
Bertrand Chardon
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