But Halsema has now rowed back on her use of the term, claiming it had been manipulated to serve political agendas both nationally and internationally. “I must say that in the following days I saw how the word pogrom became very political and actually became propaganda. The Israeli government, talking about a Palestinian pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam. In The Hague, the word pogrom is mainly used to discriminate against Moroccan Amsterdammers, Muslims. I didn’t mean it that way. And I didn’t want it that way,” Halsema told Dutch state media on Sunday.