AMSTERDAM (AP) — Israeli fans were attacked after a soccer match in Amsterdam by hordes of youths apparently annoyed by calls on social media to target Jews, Dutch authorities said Friday.
Five people were treated in hospitals and dozens were arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as anti-Semitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe.
Reports of anti-Semitic speech, vandalism and violence have increased in Europe since the start of the Gaza war, and tensions rose in Amsterdam ahead of Thursday night’s match between Dutch team Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Local authorities banned pro-Palestinian protesters from gathering outside the stadium, and video showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans as they marched to the match. Then, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city looking for Israeli supporters, punching and kicking them, then quickly fleeing to escape police, said Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema.
On the social media platform Telegram, “there is talk of people going on a Jewish hunt,” Halsema said. “It’s so shocking and so despicable that I still can’t understand it.” The Dutch Minister of Justice and Security, David van Weel, has pledged to find and prosecute the perpetrators.
Police had to escort some supporters back to hotels, according to authorities.
Ofek Ziv, a Maccabi fan from the Israeli town of Petah Tikva, said someone threw a rock at his head, causing slight bleeding, as he and a friend left the stadium. He said a group of men began chasing him, before he and his friend got into a taxi, took other fans and took refuge in a hotel.
“I’m very scared, it’s very striking,” Ziv said. “And the police didn’t come to help us.”
Another Israeli fan, Alyia Cohen, said upon his return to Israel that he would return to Amsterdam for the next matches. “We are not afraid of anything, ours belongs to the people of Israel. »
Five people were treated in hospital and released, while around 20 to 30 people suffered minor injuries, police said. At least 62 suspects have been arrested, 10 of whom remain in custody, city prosecutor René de Beukelaer told reporters at a news conference on Friday.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it “views this horrific incident with the utmost seriousness.” He demanded that the Dutch government take “strong and rapid action” against those involved.
Condemnation of the violence poured in from across Europe. “Anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in Europe and we are determined to combat it and all forms of hatred,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “We want Jewish life and culture to flourish in Europe. »
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof condemned the violence and returned home early from a European Union summit in Hungary.
The attacks shattered the long-cherished vision of Amsterdam as a beacon of tolerance and a refuge for persecuted religions, including Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain who fled to the city centuries ago.
Police said security would be increased at Jewish institutions in the city, which has a large Jewish community and was home to Jewish World War II chronicler Anne Frank and her family while they hid from Nazi occupiers.
Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, described the violence as “an eruption of anti-Semitism that we hoped would never be seen again in Amsterdam.”
In the past, Ajax was known as a football club linked to Amsterdam’s Jewish community, as visiting fans had to pass through 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.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Amsterdam on Friday and in a message on X said that hatred of Jews “appears in place after place after place.”
Saar met with the Dutch minister of security and justice, pledging Israeli help in the investigation, and also spoke with Geert Wilders, a far-right anti-Islam lawmaker whose party won the national elections last year.
Amsterdam police spokeswoman Sara Tillart said it was too early in the investigation to say whether anyone other than soccer fans was targeted. Authorities banned protests across the city over the weekend and gave police additional powers to search people.
The Israeli government initially ordered two planes to be sent to Amsterdam to bring supporters home, but Netanyahu’s office later said it would help citizens arrange commercial flights.
Maccabi CEO Ben Mansford spoke to reporters at Israel International Airport as some fans returned. “A lot of people went to see a soccer game … to support Israel, to support the Star of David,” he said. For them to be attacked, “it’s a very sad time for all of us, considering the last year we’ve had.”
Tensions were brewing in Amsterdam days before the match. A Palestinian flag was torn down from a building in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Dutch television channel NOS reported, and authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the stadium.
Before the match, large crowds of supporters of the Israeli team could be seen on video chanting anti-Arab slogans as they marched towards the stadium, escorted by police.
“Let the IDF win and (expletive) the Arabs,” supporters chanted, using the acronym for the Israeli army, as they clenched their fists. It also shows police pushing several pro-Palestinian protesters away from a gathering of Maccabi supporters in a square earlier in the day.
Security concerns over staging matches against visiting Israeli teams led the Belgian football federation to refuse to stage a men’s Nations League match in September. This match against Israel was played in Hungary, without fans in the stadium.
Israel was exiled from the Asian Football Confederation in the 1970s after Arab countries refused to play against it. Israel participated in European qualifying for the 1982 World Cup and has been a member of UEFA, the European football body, since 1994.
The violence in Amsterdam will undoubtedly lead to a review of security at future matches involving Israeli teams. UEFA announced on Monday that a Maccabi match, which was initially scheduled to be played in Istanbul on November 28 against Turkish team Besiktas, would be moved to a neutral venue yet to be determined.
Italian police said security was increased at Maccabi Tel Aviv’s basketball game at Virtus Bologna on Friday night, both for fans and the Maccabi team.
The Israel national football team is scheduled to face France in Paris on November 14 in the Nations League. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Friday the match would go ahead as planned.
“I think for some symbolic reason we must not give in, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans around the world came together this year for the Paris Olympics to celebrate the “universal values” of sport.
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This story was written by Associated Press reporter Mike Corder. Associated Press reporters Julia Frankel and Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Lee Keath in Cairo, Graham Dunbar in Geneva and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.
