Israel sent commercial planes to the Netherlands this Friday (8) to rescue citizens who were in the country for a football match after Amsterdam was the scene of clashes between fans. The acts, described as anti-Semitism by local authorities, left five hospitalized and have already resulted in 62 arrests, according to Dutch police.
The clashes broke out at night, in the center of the capital, after a Europa League game between the Dutch Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, won by the local team on Thursday night (7). The Israeli national team and clubs have competed in tournaments organized by the European UEFA since the 1990s, almost 20 years after the Middle Eastern country’s expulsion from the AFC (Asian Football Confederation).
Videos on social media show police intervening in clashes, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli insults. In one of them, verified by Reuters, a group of men run near Amsterdam’s central station, chasing and attacking other fans, while police sirens sound.
Another video, however, also verified by the news agency, showed Maccabi fans lighting flares and chanting “let the IDF win, let’s fuck the Arabs”, in a reference to the acronym that identifies the Israeli Army.
On its account on the social network
In the afternoon, around a hundred Israeli fans had gathered in Dam Square, in the center of Amsterdam, surrounded by a large police device, before heading to the Johan Cruyff stadium, in the southwest of the city. Next to the stadium, a pro-Palestinian gathering was planned, but ended up being moved to a more distant area by the city hall for security reasons.
Even so, protesters tried to reach the Johan Cruyff Arena, according to police. Fans reportedly left the stadium without incident, before clashes broke out hours later in the city center.
The attacks occur close to a sensitive date for the Jewish community. On Thursday, hundreds gathered in the city to remember Broken Glass, the Nazi attack on Jews across Germany in November 1938. Security measures had been tightened, authorities said, but this was not enough.
The Israeli embassy in The Hague said crowds chanted anti-Israeli slogans, “kicking, hitting, even running over Israeli citizens.” “On the eve of Broken Glass — when Jews in Nazi Germany suffered brutal attacks — it is horrifying to witness anti-Semitic violence on the streets of Europe once again,” he said.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “attacked, abused and hit with fireworks”, and that police had to intervene several times to protect them and escort them to their hotels.
Such incidents have increased in the Netherlands since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, with many Jewish organizations and schools reporting threats. More than 43,000 people were killed and another 102,000 injured in Tel Aviv’s military offensive in Palestinian territory, according to Hamas, the terrorist group responsible for the attack that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in southern Israel.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the events horrendous and a “premeditated anti-Semitic attack” as he announced the dispatch of two rescue planes to provide aid and repatriate fans.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens”, which he classified as “completely unacceptable”. According to a statement on social media site X, Schoof assured Netanyahu over the phone that “the attackers will be identified and prosecuted.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had spoken to the King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, who expressed “deep horror and shock at the criminal acts committed.” The president stated that the country failed its Jewish community during World War II, under Nazi occupation and persecution, and again on Thursday night.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was outraged by the “vile attacks against Israeli citizens in Amsterdam”. “Anti-Semitism has no place in Europe”, he wrote in X. The UN, in turn, classified the violence as “very worrying”.
Anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, leader of the largest party in the Dutch government, said he was “ashamed that this could happen in the Netherlands.” In a post on X, without evidence, he blamed “criminal Muslims” and said they should be deported.
The OAS (Organization of American States) commissioner for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, Fernando Lottenberg, stated that the scenes resemble the Night of Broken Glass. “Exemplary punishment is essential in this type of confrontation, especially at this delicate time of the explosion of anti-Semitic cases,” he said.
