Israel to fetch football fans from Amsterdam after apparent antisemitic attacks

AMSTERDAM: Israel was sending commercial planes to the Netherlands on Friday to bring home Israeli football fans after overnight attacks in Amsterdam that officials described as antisemitic, although there was evidence of provocative chanting from Israeli fans.

Videos on social media showed riot police intervening in clashes, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli slurs. But some footage also showed Israeli supporters chanting anti-Arab slogans before Thursday evening’s match.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were “attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks” and that riot police intervened to protect them and escort them to hotels. At least five people were treated in hospital, she said.

Security measures were increased in the city, where hundreds gathered on Thursday to remember Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom against Jews across Germany on Nov. 9-10, 1938.

Antisemitic incidents have surged in the Netherlands since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the attacks on Israel by the Palestinian Hamas group on Oct. 7, 2023, with many Jewish organisations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the order to send planes was taken after “a very violent incident” targeting Israeli citizens after the match between Maccabi and Ajax Amsterdam, traditionally identified as a Jewish club.

One video verified by Reuters showed a group of men running near Amsterdam central station, chasing and assaulting other men, as police sirens sounded.

However, another verified video showed Maccabi fans setting off flares and chanting “Ole, ole, let the IDF win, we will fuck the Arabs”, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens”, which he called “completely unacceptable”.

Schoof said he had assured Netanyahu by phone that “the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted”.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who he said had “expressed deep horror and shock over the criminal acts committed”.

Herzog quoted the king as saying the Netherlands had failed its Jewish community during World War Two - under Nazi occupation and persecution - and again on Thursday night.

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Anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, head of the largest party in the Dutch government, said he was “ashamed that this can happen in the Netherlands”.

In a vitriolic post on the social media platform X, he blamed “criminal Muslims” and said they should be deported.

Police said there had been incidents before the game, for which roughly 3,000 Maccabi supporters travelled to Amsterdam.

The Israeli embassy in The Hague said mobs had chanted anti-Israel slogans and shared videos of their violence on social media, “kicking, beating, even running over Israeli citizens”.

“On the eve of Kristallnacht — when Jews in Nazi Germany faced brutal attacks — it is horrifying to witness antisemitic violence on the streets of Europe once again,“ it said.

Police said 62 suspects had been detained after the game as pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff Arena, even though the city had forbidden a protest there.

They said fans had left the stadium without incident after the Europa League match, which Ajax won 5-0, but that clashes erupted overnight in the city centre.

Herzog was among senior Israeli politicians who said the violence recalled the attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen last year as well as attacks on European Jews in the pogroms of previous centuries.

“We see with horror this morning, the shocking images and videos that since October 7th, we had hoped never to see again: an anti-Semitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam,“ he wrote on X.

The Israeli airlines El Al and Arkia announced five flights to Amsterdam.

The Gaza war has sparked protests in support of both sides across Europe and the United States, and both Jews and Arabs have been attacked.

In March, the opening of a new Holocaust museum in Amsterdam by Herzog led to violent protests by pro-Palestinian activists.

Over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and 102,000 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, according to health officials in the enclave, after the Palestinian militant group killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israel.