Amsterdam mayor condemns the ‘antisemitism, hooliganism’ behind attacks on Israelis
City officials say 10 Israelis were arrested ahead of Thursday’s soccer match; Dutch police warn of fresh calls for rioting after anti-Israel protesters set fire to tram car Monday
The attacks on Israeli fans by local Arab and Muslim gangs after a soccer match in Amsterdam last week were a “poisonous cocktail” of antisemitism and hooligan behavior, mayor Femke Halsema said on Tuesday, as a report showed that ten Israelis had been arrested ahead of the soccer match that preceded the attacks.
Halsema was speaking at an emergency meeting of the Amsterdam city council days after the Dutch capital was rocked by violence last Thursday following an Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv match.
Israeli officials said 10 people were injured in the Thursday night violence carried out by local Arab and Muslim gangs against Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans. Hundreds more Israelis huddled in their hotels for hours, fearing they could be attacked. Many said that Dutch security forces were nowhere to be found, as the Israeli tourists were ambushed by gangs of masked assailants who shouted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans while they hunted, beat and harassed them.
“Jewish Israeli supporters were guests in our city and they were sought, hunted and attacked via antisemitic calls on social media and on the streets,” Halsema said on Tuesday. “But Amsterdammers were also attacked by Maccabi hooligans who chanted racist and hateful slogans in our city,” she added.
Some video footage on social media showed Israeli fans singing anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian chants, apparently prior to the riots, pointing to high tensions and unrest even before the attacks.
Pro-Palestinian activists claimed the Israeli fans were the first to engage in harassment and violence, although those claims were not verifiable. Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that a Palestinian flag was ripped off a building in the center of the city.
City officials said Tuesday that ten Israelis had been arrested ahead of the soccer match that preceded the antisemitic attacks.
According to the report from the city’s mayor, police chief and top prosecutor, which offered a blow-by-blow account of events leading up to the match and in their aftermath, all but four people of the 62 arrested around the match have been released. Of the four, three are suspected of attacking police and one is accused of “public violence.”
The post-mortem said that city officials considered calling off the match the morning before it was played Thursday, but decided instead to simply open the soccer stadium early and herd Israeli fans there rather than allow them to remain in the city center.
Officials had expressed concerns “due to the aggression of Maccabi supporters” who had vandalized a taxi in the city Wednesday night, sparking online calls for taxi drivers to head to a casino where hundreds of Israeli tourists were gathered, though police managed to largely head off the clash.
The report also revealed that Amsterdam city officials were unable to reach Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof at 3 a.m. on Friday after Israel’s ambassador said Israeli government officials were planning to fly to the Netherlands in reaction to the attacks.
The report said police prevented many incidents, but struggled to track down perpetrators carrying out hit-and-run attacks and so around 1 a.m. decided to instead round up Israelis and take them to hotels.
The document noted that police were continuing to make arrests, while also sounding alarms on an uptick of anti-Muslim violence in the city.
Newly appointed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told reporters in Jerusalem on Monday that Israel deemed the number of arrests over clashes in Amsterdam last week “very low.”
Dutch authorities appeared to express annoyance at Sa’ar in the report, writing that they went to great lengths to quickly organize a stop for him at the Anne Frank House, only for Sa’ar to skip the visit.
Schoof on Monday condemned the actions of the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, but stressed that there was no excuse for the “deliberate hunting down of Jews.”
“There is a big difference between destroying things and hunting Jews,” Schoof said.
Schoof was meeting with community leaders Tuesday afternoon to discuss antisemitism.
Halsema told the press Tuesday that after Thursday’s match, groups of men on scooters engaged in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi fans in areas of the city.
She said the situation after the game at the Johan Cruyff Arena, to the southeast of the city, “was under control until these hit-and-run incidents.”
“Then a situation developed which the police could not tackle with the current force available,” she said.
That is also when the first reports appeared on social media calling for the specific targeting of Israeli Maccabi supporters and a “Jew hunt.”
Halsema said Jewish institutions in the city including synagogues were not targeted and the attacks were “purely aimed at Israeli Maccabi supporters.”
Asked by some council members why the game was not canceled because of the given security considerations, Halsema said, “We have taken all possible measures ahead of the game” based on security assessments.
“But what you ask me then is to forbid a team because it’s Israeli,” she said.
Police also said the attackers were mobilized by calls on social media to target Jewish people.
Police warn fresh riots may still break out
Tensions remained high in Amsterdam over the weekend, and police enforced a week-long ban on protesting in the city, leading to the arrest of several people on Tuesday who defied the measure.
A Reuters eyewitness said that the protesters were arrested while holding up white banners in front of city hall. A police spokesperson confirmed that six people had been arrested.
Also on Tuesday, senior Amsterdam police officer Olivier Dutilh warned of calls for continued rioting after fresh violence broke out on Monday night.
“We have signals that there are calls for similar” unrest in the west of the city,” Dutilh said in a court hearing.
Dozens of rioters threw fireworks at a tram car on Monday night, causing it to catch fire, while chanting antisemitic slogans. No one was hurt, although the windows of the tram were shattered.
Footage from the scene caught at least one of the participants shouting, “Cancer Jews,” indicating that the violence was an extension of Thursday’s attacks. Another video showed a Palestinian flag hung near one of the main points of friction during the clashes.
Police said it was not clear who started the Monday night unrest and whether it was related to what happened last week.
Several suspects were arrested following the rioting on Monday after police said earlier in the day that they had arrested an additional five people in connection to last Thursday’s attacks.
The latest suspects were men aged 18 to 37 and living in the Netherlands, Dutch police said in a statement.
Four other men arrested last week remain in custody amid the ongoing investigation. Two of those are minors, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old from Amsterdam. The other two men are from Amsterdam and a nearby city.
Police said they have identified over 170 witnesses and have taken forensics evidence from dozens.
