AMSTERDAM - Amsterdam banned demonstrations for three days from Friday after overnight attacks on Israeli football supporters by what the mayor called “antisemitic hit-and-run squads”, and Israel said it would fly many fans home.
Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi fans had been “attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks” around the city, and that riot police intervened to protect them and escort them to hotels. At least five people were treated in hospital.
Videos on social media showed riot police in action, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli slurs. Some footage also showed Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters chanting anti-Arab slogans before Thursday evening’s match.
“We saw a lot of demonstrations, a lot of people running. It was really, really terrifying,” said Joni Pogrebetsy, an Israeli fan in Amsterdam for the match.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel was sending planes to the Netherlands to bring fans home.
Antisemitic incidents have surged in the Netherlands since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the attacks on Israel by the Palestinian Hamas group on Oct 7, 2023, with many Jewish organisations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.
Amsterdam banned demonstrations through the weekend and gave police emergency stop-and-search powers in response to unrest that exposed deep anger over the Gaza-Israel conflict.
Over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed, 102,000 others injured and millions displaced in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, according to health officials in the enclave, after Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israel.
Halsema said city police had been taken by surprise after security services failed to flag the match against Ajax Amsterdam, traditionally identified as a Jewish club, as high-risk. “Antisemitic hit-and-run squads” had managed to evade a force of around 200 officers, she said.
Security was tightened in the city, where a service was planned at a Jewish monument on Saturday. On Thursday, hundreds had gathered to remember Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom against Jews across Germany on Nov 9-10, 1938. (Story continues below)
A woman wrapped in an Israel flag stands outside the site where Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema was holding a press conference following the violence targeting fans of an Israeli football team, on Friday. (Photo: Reuters)
Netherlands vows to punish attackers
One video verified by Reuters showed a group of men running near Amsterdam central station, chasing and assaulting other men, as police sirens sounded.
Another verified video showed Maccabi fans setting off flares and chanting “Ole, ole, let the IDF win, we will fuck the Arabs”, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens” and had assured Netanyahu by phone that “the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted”. Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who he said had “expressed deep horror and shock”.
Herzog quoted the king as saying the Netherlands had failed its Jewish community during World War II — under Nazi occupation and persecution — and again on Thursday night.
Herzog’s opening of a new Holocaust museum in Amsterdam in March led to angry protests by pro-Palestinian activists, and there was violence in May at student-led pro-Palestinian protests in the city.
Anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, head of the largest party in the government, said he was “ashamed that this can happen in the Netherlands”.
In a vitriolic post on the social media platform X, he blamed “criminal Muslims” and said they should be deported.
Police said there had been incidents before the game, for which 3,000 Maccabi supporters travelled to Amsterdam.
Memories of European pogroms
The Israeli embassy in The Hague said mobs had chanted anti-Israel slogans and shared videos of their violence on social media, “kicking, beating, even running over Israeli citizens”.
“On the eve of Kristallnacht — when Jews in Nazi Germany faced brutal attacks — it is horrifying to witness antisemitic violence on the streets of Europe once again,” it said.
Police said 62 suspects had been detained after the game as pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff Arena, even though the city had forbidden a protest there. Ten remained in custody on Friday.
They said fans had left the stadium without incident after the Europa League match, which Ajax won 5-0, but that clashes erupted overnight in the city centre.
Herzog was among senior Israeli politicians who said the violence recalled the attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen last year as well as attacks on European Jews in the pogroms of previous centuries.
“We see with horror this morning, the shocking images and videos that since October 7, we had hoped never to see again: an anti-Semitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam,” he wrote on X. The Israeli airlines El Al and Arkia announced five flights to Amsterdam and Brussels.
The Gaza war has sparked protests in support of both sides across Europe and the United States, and both Jews and Arabs have been attacked.