Israel says wave of violence in Amsterdam ‘over,’ but journalists report harassment
Kan TV says group of hostile youths trailed its team after it reported from Dam Square, requiring police escort; Dutch report says nobody who took part in attacks has been arrested
Israeli authorities declared Saturday evening that a wave of violence against Israelis in Amsterdam — which saw mass, organized attacks on Thursday night following a soccer match there — was over, and that it was safe for Israelis to be in the Dutch capital.
Hours later, though, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster said its journalists were tailed in the center of the Dutch capital and needed a police escort, indicating that the threat hadn’t completely subsided.
Israeli officials said 10 citizens were injured in the overnight violence by local Arab and Muslim gangs on 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.
On Saturday, Israel’s National Security Council cited an assessment from security agencies declaring “the wave of violence” was over and that Israelis could again freely move around the city.
The statement stressed, however, that due to continued concerns, citizens should “hide Israeli symbols” and exercise increased vigilance.
The Netherlands is on the NSC list of countries where a “Level 2” designation applies, indicating a “potential threat” and the need to take “precautionary measures.”
"חיכו לנו בסמטה": צוות כאן 11 אוים על ידי פרו-פלסטינים באמסטרדם – ופונה בידי שוטרים@michalresh pic.twitter.com/jFhgdY8IKp
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 9, 2024
Hours after the more reassuring statement, the Kan public broadcaster said its reporter Michal Reshef and cameraman Micah Rizov had been trailed by a group of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian youths after filming a segment in Amsterdam.
In a video published by Kan, Reshef said the group had approached them while shouting “Free Palestine” right before her live report from the city’s Dam Square but that they were “pushed back” by police.
After her broadcast, Reshef said the group “waited in an alley” before following her and Rizov as they were leaving, forcing them to enter a store for safety and to call police. The video ended with the officers arriving to escort them to safety.
Amsterdam police on Saturday said four people remained in custody after 63 people were initially detained over the riots.
Prosecutors said the four suspects include two minors, and that 40 additional people had been fined for public disturbance and 10 for offenses including vandalism.
They added that more arrests were expected.
But on Saturday evening, Dutch news outlet De Telegraaf reported that the country’s prosecutors had confirmed that none of the detainees were arrested during the riots, and that in fact, all but one had been apprehended before the match was over and before the attacks on the fans began.
This led to criticism from Geert Wilders, who heads the largest party in the Dutch government and is known for his anti-Islam stance.
I am speechless. Amsterdam Police just confirmed that NO ONE has been arrested during the Islamic Jewhunt in Amsterdam Thursday night. All arrests have been made before and during the soccer match and NOT during the pogrom. ????
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) November 9, 2024
Meanwhile, Melhem Asad, a resident of the northern Druze town of Kisra-Sumei who is a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan, recalled to Channel 12 news how he yelled in Arabic at a group of assailants in Amsterdam to prevent them from attacking Jewish fans of the team.
According to Asad, Maccabi fans were escorted by police to the match against Ajax due to anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstrations but after the game “the local police just screwed up.”
“They didn’t guard us, we felt really exposed,” he said.
Asad said he had nearly made it safely back to his hotel after the brutal attacks started when he encountered a group of Arabic-speaking suspects planning to assault Maccabi fans.
“I told them that no Jews are still here and that they escaped. I did everything to confuse them… I directed them the other way and then ran toward groups of Israelis and warned them that there are immigrants who are looking to hurt them,” he told the network, also recalling that he had told his fellow Maccabi supporters to take off their blue and yellow jerseys so they couldn’t be identified.
Asad said the violence reminded him of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught last year.
“I feel that God sent me at the right time and to the place to save whoever I could,” he added.
ערבות הדדית בהתגלמותה -מלחם אסעד, תושב הכפר שלי כסרא-סמיע, אוהד מכבי תל אביב היה באמסטרדם
כשהתחיל הפוגרום ברחובות העיר, ובזכות התושייה שלו ניצל את העובדה שהוא דובר ערבית על מנת להטעות את הפורעים ולהציל אוהדים רבים.
גאים בך מלחם! שנזכה לחוות ערבות הדדית במשך השנה ולא רק ברגעי אסון pic.twitter.com/0iR5sOBgmQ— Lorena Khateeb | لورينا خطيب (@kh_lorena) November 9, 2024
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said Saturday that he had scrapped plans to travel to the COP29 climate summit due to the scandal.
“I will not be going to Azerbaijan next week for the UN Climate Conference COP29. Due to the major social impact of the events of last Thursday night in Amsterdam, I will remain in the Netherlands,” he said on social media platform X.
The premier said Thursday night’s violence in Amsterdam would be discussed at Monday’s cabinet meeting.
Justice Minister David van Weel said in a letter to parliament Friday evening that the Dutch government was investigating whether and how warning signs highlighted by Israel were missed in the events leading up to the attacks.
“The Public Prosecution Service has stated that it aims to apply fast-track justice as much as possible,” van Weel said in the letter, adding that it is “the absolute priority” to identify every suspect.
His letter came after he met with newly-appointed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar who traveled to Amsterdam after the attacks to oversee a rescue flight that returned some of the Israeli fans.
“[I] emphasized that the Netherlands strongly condemns the violence and that there is no place for hatred and antisemitism,” van Weel said on social media platform X.
Sa’ar also met with Wilders, who said he had assured the Israeli minister of “our common interest to beat antisemitism and Jew hate and that radical Islamic values have no place in a free society.”
Van Weel’s letter came after Israeli officials said warnings had been sent to the Dutch.
A senior Israeli security official said Friday that Israeli security services had identified a “flare-up” on Dutch social media ahead of the game with calls by pro-Palestinian groups to hold a violent protest near the stadium.
“Due to this, the Mossad passed a warning to security services in the Netherlands with a request to immediately and significantly reinforce the security for Israelis in the area of the stadium and across the city, with an emphasis placed on hotels where the fans were known to be staying,” the official said.
However, he noted that Israel’s National Security Council had not been briefed on the threats and as such did not issue a warning to the public, including the some 3,000 fans who had traveled to see the match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax.
Hundreds of those fans were also filmed chanting racist slogans against Arabs before, during and after the game, and tearing down Palestinian flags, leading to claims by some Israel critics that Maccabi fans played a role in instigating the Thursday night violence.
The Israeli official noted that the attacks, which he said “spread like wildfire,” were apparently organized by Islamic elements in the Netherlands, and not by Iran, which has been accused of fomenting violent attacks on Israeli targets in other parts of Europe, particularly Sweden and Denmark.
The mayor of the Dutch capital on Friday banned demonstrations for three days and gave police emergency stop-and-search power after the attacks which she called “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who managed to evade a force of around 200 officers.
Ajax is known as a soccer club with links to Amsterdam’s Jewish community because visiting fans had to pass the city’s Jewish quarter to get to the club’s former stadium. Ajax fans sometimes wave Star of David flags and chant the Dutch word for Jews.
Antisemitic incidents have surged in the Netherlands during the Israel-Hamas war, with many Jewish organizations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.
