pogrom

In March, pro-government factions committed what rights groups called a pogrom in Syria’s coastal region, torturing, kidnapping and killing some 1,500 people from the Alawite community.

A number of those factions then engaged in a pogrom against Alawite civilians, residents and activists said.

While Jewish people had already been settling in the area, pogroms across Russia and neighbouring countries following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 saw more people arrive in an already-crowded part of town.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, described the incidents as deeply alarming, and noted for some they were a reminder of historical pogroms against Jews.

For many, it was especially shocking coming on the eve of commemorations marking Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogroms against German Jews.