Dutch police arrest dozens who defy protest ban after antisemitic riots in Amsterdam
Hundreds rally against Israel, claim Maccabi soccer fans ‘attacked our city’; ban on demonstrations extended to Thursday, as police chief reports ongoing anti-Jewish incidents
Dutch police arrested dozens of anti-Israel demonstrators on Sunday, after they defied a temporary ban on protests, imposed after mass violence against Israeli tourists following a Thursday night soccer game in Amsterdam.
Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered in the capital city’s Dam Square, in defiance of the ban. There, protesters denounced the Israelis who attended the soccer game, in which Maccabi Tel Aviv faced off against local Ajax.
After the ban’s extension was ratified on Sunday, police moved in to break up the protest, instructing protesters to leave and rounding up more than 100 of them, according to a Reuters journalist.
They were put on buses and dropped off on the outskirts of the city, police spokesperson Ramona van den Ochtend said, without confirming how many had been picked up.
One protester was taken to an ambulance bleeding.
Israeli officials said 10 citizens were injured in the overnight violence Thursday, apparently committed by local Arab and Muslim gangs, that followed the soccer game. 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.
Protesters shouting “Amsterdam is saying no to Genocide” I guess 200 to 300 people. #emergencyprotest ©️iAnnet pic.twitter.com/MVdN1sJ8Ic
— iAnnet ???? (@iAnnetnl) November 10, 2024
The Dutch government condemned the attacks as antisemitic, as did US President Joe Biden, whose envoy for combating antisemitism called the events “terribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom.”
At the protest Sunday, a demonstrator declared that the Israeli fans “attacked our city, attacked our people.” A photo shared on social media also featured a small group of protesters with a banner reading “Israelis against genocide.”
Protest organizers said in an Instagram message on Sunday that they were outraged by the “framing” of the riots as antisemitic and called the protest ban draconian.
“We refuse to let the charge of antisemitism be weaponized to suppress Palestinian resistance,” they said, using a phrase frequently invoked by the proponents of terrorism against Israeli civilians.
Related: Dutch government probing missed Israeli warnings ahead of Amsterdam ‘pogrom’
Videos of the attacks, which occurred after the game, show at least one perpetrator proclaiming a “Jew hunt,” and another person, under assault, insisting he is not Jewish in order to avoid being hurt. Another clip showed a man with a kippah in the street being badgered by rioters demanding to know where he was from as he tried to get away.
Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were recorded before the game on Thursday using anti-Arab chants, and taking down a Palestinian flag.
The Netherlands has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents, in line with a surge globally, in the 13 months since the Hamas terror group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
The Hamas attack started an ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, which has also seen fighting in southern Lebanon, and elsewhere in the region.
