Amsterdam — Anti-Semitic rioters “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them” after a soccer match in Amsterdam, Dutch authorities said Friday, with police reporting five people hospitalized and 62 detained after a night of violence between them. Police did not mention the nationality of any of those injured or arrested after the scenes of chaos in the Dutch capital.
The Israeli government said it was helping coordinate return flights for Israeli fans caught up in the violence.
Israel is “doing everything to ensure the safety and security of our citizens who were brutally attacked during the horrific anti-Semitic incident in Amsterdam,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “It was decided that there was no need to send a professional rescue mission to the Netherlands. Instead, efforts will be focused on providing civil aviation solutions for the recovery of our citizens.
Israel’s Airports Authority said the first of two planes sent to bring the country’s citizens home took off from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv and was expected to arrive in Amsterdam within a few hours.
X/iAnnet via REUTERS.
Dutch leaders also condemned the violence against Israeli fans as anti-Semitic.
The attacks on supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv football club took place after a Europa League football match between their team and local team Ajax Amsterdam, but there had also been clashes between the Israeli fans and locals before the match.
The violence broke out despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the football stadium imposed by the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, who feared that clashes would break out between demonstrators and supporters of the Israeli club.
The violent clashes reportedly occurred around midnight local time, with numerous fights and acts of vandalism in central Amsterdam.
There were also clashes before the match, as Maccabi fans were among hundreds to march through central Amsterdam in a pro-Israel demonstration, during which flares were lit and Palestinian flags hanging in some streets were reportedly torn down amid chants of “death to the Arabs.” »
Mouneb Taïm/Anadolu/Getty
In an earlier statement, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister had ordered two “rescue planes” to be sent to Amseterdam to evacuate Israeli citizens, but the decision was later reversed. Netanyahu’s office also banned any member of the country’s military from traveling to the Netherlands for an indefinite period.
“The harsh images of the aggression against our citizens in Amsterdam will not be ignored,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that the Israeli government “views the premeditated anti-Semitic attack against Israeli citizens with the utmost seriousness.”
Netanyahu’s office called on the Dutch government to take “strong and swift action” against those involved.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on social media that he was following reports of violence “with horror.”
“Totally unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks against Israelis. I am in close contact with everyone involved,” he added, saying he had spoken with Netanyahu and “stressed that the perpetrators would be sought out and prosecuted.” It is now calm in the capital.
In a post on the social media platform they recalled October 7, 2023. Hamas attack against Israel which triggered Israel’s ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Israeli embassy in Washington said on X that “hundreds” of Maccabi fans were “ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam this evening as they left the stadium after a match”, according to AFP . The embassy blamed the violence on “a mob that targeted innocent Israelis.”
Geert Wilders, the far-right nationalist lawmaker whose Freedom Party won elections in the Netherlands last year and who is a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan surrounded of several men.
“It looks like a hunt for Jews in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and expel the multicultural scum who attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in our streets. It’s a shame that this could happen in the Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” Wilders said.