Dutch Jews decry courts, media, politics as mild verdicts handed down for Nov. ‘Jew hunt’
4 receive light sentences for roles in last year’s Amsterdam riots after soccer match with Maccabi Tel Aviv; critics note prosecutors didn’t charge perpetrators with antisemitism
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A criminal court in Amsterdam on Wednesday sentenced four perpetrators of a “Jew hunt” in November to prison terms ranging from 11 days to three months. The four defendants were part of a group of as many as several hundred rioters who attacked Israeli supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer club after its match against local club Ajax on November 7.
In response to the sentences, Gidi Markuszower, a Jewish parliamentarian for Geert Wilders’s right-wing, pro-Israel Freedom Party, said of the prosecutors and judges: “They made one thing very clear: ‘Dutch Jews, you can run, but you can’t hide.’”
The “hit-and-run” style attacks lasted through the early hours of November 8, leaving 10 injured, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, while hundreds were unable to emerge from their hotels.
Organized through WhatsApp groups, local Arab and Muslim gangs attacked Israeli soccer fans and searched and demanded identification from passersby to check if they were Israelis or Dutch Jews. In their WhatsApp conversations, the rioters themselves spoke of a “Jew hunt.” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema labeled the attacks a “pogrom” before retracting the comment days later, after political blowback.
Cenk D., considered one of the central figures in the attacks, was sentenced to three months incarceration, one month more than the public prosecutor’s office had asked for — an atypical occurrence. (In Dutch court cases, only the first letter of a defendant’s surname is used in communication with the media.) Three other defendants received lower sentences.
In a WhatsApp group called “Buurthuis 2,” or “Community Center 2,” Cenk D. had shared the location of Jewish soccer fans with 1,000 other members, calling on them to go on the attack: “A dead Jew is better than a living Jew.”
Cenk D. also sent pictures of Anne Frank, which the court considered downplaying the Holocaust, a criminal offense in the Netherlands.
Taxi driver Mounir M. was sentenced to six weeks, minus 26 days for time served during the investigation. Mounir M. used the same WhatsApp group to tell the rioters where they could find Jews and how to evade the police that night.
Kamal I., another taxi driver, received one month with the same deduction; prosecutors had asked for a year of jail time. However, even though Kamal I. had videos of some of the assaults on his phone, the court did not see enough proof to conclude that he had personally participated in the violence.
Mohammed B. was convicted of assault and received a sentence of 11 days. He will not have to go to prison, since the sentence is the same as the number of days he had already spent in jail. The mild sentence was given despite Mohammed B.’s previous record of violent offenses, and Dutch newspaper Het Parool wrote that Mohammed B. had been seen at other anti-Israel rallies, including one at the Amsterdam Central Train Station on the night before his sentencing.
Victor Loonstein, a lawyer for 35 of the Israeli victims, said the sentences were in line with Dutch guidelines. He noted, however, that the court took several ostensibly mitigating circumstances into account, such as the part Maccabi fans allegedly played in the violence, and in the cases of Palestinian suspects, their “trauma” since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
Loonstein blamed local politics for the changing narrative since last November.
“Where at first the riots were labeled a ‘Jew hunt,’ this quickly changed under the influence of politicians and pro-Palestinian organizations,” he said. “Suddenly, the events had to be viewed in a different context, and we were supposed to understand the motives of the perpetrators. I call this the ‘October 7 mechanism.’”
Loonstein pointed out the refusal of the public prosecutor’s office to charge the rioters with an antisemitic motive, which carries heavier penalties in the Netherlands, despite numerous references to “hunting Jews,” not “Israelis,” both in their communications on WhatsApp and in videos of the assaults that were put on the internet the same night.
“The penalties are low, but unfortunately that is a part of the Dutch legal system,” said Naomi Mestrum, director of the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel. “Only last week, the Upper Chamber of Parliament in The Hague approved a new law that gives harsher punishment for crimes of a discriminatory nature like antisemitism. We hope and expect that in future cases these aggravating circumstances are weighed in the sentencing.”
In total, the Amsterdam police are eyeing some 120 suspects for the violence, of whom allegedly 10 are Israeli. Last week, police showed unblurred footage of another 22 suspects of the November attacks who have not yet been identified.
“The prison terms of the sentences are so mild that the Dutch legal system actually incentivizes the ‘Jew hunters’ for another round of hunting,” said Markuszower. “It’s very clear that mainstream media and mainly politicians from the left are more comfortable providing cover for their fellow antisemites than protecting the Jews here in the Netherlands.”
Loonstein agreed to a certain point with Markuszower’s view on the role of the Dutch media.
“Dutch public television now calls it the Maccabi riots. It’s the world upside down,” he said.
Tofik Dibi, a former politician and now a high-ranking civil servant of the city of Amsterdam, last week spoke on state television of an “Arab hunt” by Maccabi fans — a conspiracy theory that has been debunked by many eyewitnesses — without being countered by anyone on the program.
Dibi has justified the November riots and has often toed the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, calling for an intifada, wishing disease upon politicians attending a pro-Israel rally, and seemingly comparing Israel supporters to cockroaches — though Halsema, a member of the same left-wing political party as Dibi, has not initiated any action as a result.
“Immediately after the Ajax-Maccabi match, many false narratives were started,” said Mestrum. “It was claimed that Maccabi fans started the fighting. Later, it was proven that the attacks were planned days ahead.”
Still, Dutch media is afraid to give an unbiased account of what happened that night, said Mestrum.
“It is now treated as ‘normal’ violence around a football match, which tends to receive less media attention,” she said. “This is sad since we know it was a premeditated and carefully organized attack. The football element is now used as an excuse.”
The Times of Israel Community.