Israel on Friday said it was rushing commercial planes to Amsterdam to bring home Israeli soccer fans after they were attacked overnight by unidentified miscreants, which officials described as hit-and-run attacks and they treated the incident as antisemitic. However, there were reports of provocative chanting from Israeli fans towards Arab supporters before a football match in the Dutch capital.
Videos on social media showed riot police intervening in clashes, with some attackers shouting anti-Israeli slurs. But some footage also showed Israeli supporters chanting anti-Arab slogans before Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv's Europa League match on Thursday evening. Five people suffered injuries but were discharged and over 60 people were arrested for violence, Dutch police told.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were "attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks", adding that riot police escorted them to hotels after fireworks. She described the incidents as hit-and-run attacks and men on scooters were searching for Maccabi supporters last night.
Security measures were tightened in Amsterdam, where hundreds gathered on Thursday to remember Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom against Jews across Germany on November 9-10, 1938.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued an order to send planes following "a very violent incident" targeting Israeli citizens after the match between Maccabi and Ajax Amsterdam, traditionally identified as a Jewish club.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was "horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens", which he called "completely unacceptable". The Dutch premier said he had assured Netanyahu by phone that "the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted".
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who "expressed deep horror and shock over the criminal acts committed".
Herzog quoted the king as saying the Netherlands had failed its Jewish community during World War Two - under Nazi occupation and persecution - and again on Thursday night.
Before Thursday's match, Maccabi fans and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with each other. Maccabi supporters attacked a taxi and set a Palestinian flag on fire on Wednesday while there were reports of Israeli fans chanting racist slogans about Arabs.
Antisemitic incidents have surged in the Netherlands since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the attacks on Israel by Hamas, the Palestinian terror group, on October 7, 2023, with many Jewish organisations and schools reporting threats and hate mail.
Over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and 102,000 others injured 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 hostages, according to Israel.
Source: Reuters