From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Report by top Amsterdam officials says 10 of those arrested last Thursday are Israeli
Joshua Davidovich is The Times of Israel's Deputy Editor
Ten Israelis were arrested ahead of an Amsterdam soccer match last week that preceded antisemitic attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, the Dutch capital’s top officials say in a report.
According to the report from the city’s mayor, police chief and top prosecutor, which offers 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 says that city officials considered calling off the match the morning before it was played on 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 reveals 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.
Israeli officials said 10 people were injured in the overnight violence 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.
The report says police prevented many incidents, but struggled to track down perpetrators carrying out hit-and-run attacks and so around 2 a.m. decided to instead round up Israelis and take them to hotels.
The document notes that police are continuing to investigate and expect more arrests, while also sounding alarms on an uptick of anti-Muslim violence in the city as well.
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 appear 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.
