AMSTERDAM (AP) — Israeli fans were assaulted after a soccer game in Amsterdam by hordes of young people apparently riled up by calls on social media to target Jewish people, Dutch authorities said Friday. Five people were treated for injuries at hospitals and dozens were arrested.
Tensions had been mounting in the Dutch capital over Israel’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, even before Thursday night's Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Amsterdam authorities banned a planned pro-Palestinian demonstration near the stadium, and video showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans en route to the game.
Afterwards, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them and then fleeing quickly to evade police, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said.
In Telegram groups, she added, “there is talk of people going on a Jew hunt. That is so shocking and so despicable that I still cannot fathom it.”
Police had to escort some fans back to hotels, according to authorities.
Ofek Ziv, a Maccabi fan from the Israeli city of Petah Tikva, said someone — he didn’t see who — threw a rock at him as he and a friend left the stadium. He was hit in the head, causing light bleeding. He said a group of Arab men began to chase him, before he and his friend got into a taxi, picking up other fans. They took shelter at a hotel.
“I’m very scared, it’s very striking. This shouldn’t happen to anyone, specifically in Amsterdam. Lots of friends were hurt, injured, kidnapped, robbed, and the police didn’t come to help us,” he said.
Another fan, Alyia Cohen, said that he and his friends were approached by a number of hostile men as they got back to their hotel after the match. Because the group wasn't wearing Maccabi shirts "they did not recognize that we are Israelis ... Nothing happened to us, but there was big chaos there that we did not expect.”
Speaking as he arrived back in Israel, he said he would go back for further matches. “We are not afraid of anything, ours is the people of Israel.”
Amsterdam police spokeswoman Sara Tillart said it was too early in the investigation to say if anybody other than soccer fans was targeted.
Five people were treated in the hospital and released, while some 20 to 30 people suffered light injuries, police said. At least 62 suspects were arrested, with 10 still in custody, the city's public prosecutor, René de Beukelaer, told reporters at a news conference Friday.
With condemnation of the violence as antisemitic pouring in from around Europe, the attacks shattered Amsterdam’s long-cherished view of itself as a beacon of tolerance and haven for persecuted religions, including Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain centuries ago.
Halsema called the violence “an eruption of antisemitism that we had hoped never again to see in Amsterdam."
Police said security will be beefed up at Jewish institutions in the city that has a large Jewish community and was home to Jewish World War II diarist Anne Frank and her family as they hid from Nazi occupiers.
The violence reverberated intensely in Israel and across Europe. Israel’s foreign minister left on an urgent trip to the Netherlands, and the government initially ordered two planes sent to the Dutch capital to bring fans home. The prime minister’s office later said it would work to help citizens arrange commercial flights.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that “the harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” and that Netanyahu “views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity.” He demanded that the Dutch government take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.
Maccabi’s CEO, Ben Mansford, spoke to press at Israel’s international airport as some fans returned. “Lots of people went to watch a football game ... to support Israel, to support the star of David,” he said. For them to be attacked, “that’s very sad times for us all given the last year we’ve had.”
The extent of the attacks Thursday night and where and when they took place was not clear. Tensions had been brewing for days.
A Palestinian flag was torn down from a building in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported, and authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the stadium.
Ahead of the game, large crowds of supporters of the Israeli team could be seen on video chanting anti-Arab slogans as they headed to the stadium, escorted by police.
“Let the IDF win, and (expletive) the Arabs,” the fans chanted, using the acronym of the Israeli military, as they shook their fists. It also showed police pushing several pro-Palestinian protesters away from a Maccabi fan gathering in a square earlier in the day.
De Beukelaer said police were investigating “to what extent an organization is behind” the attacks on Israeli fans, adding, “I have too few indications for that at the moment.”
Security issues around hosting games against visiting Israeli teams led the Belgian soccer federation to decline to stage a men’s Nations League game in September. That game against Israel was played in Hungary with no fans in the stadium.
Israel was exiled from the Asian Football Confederation in the 1970s after Arab nations refused to play against it. Israel played in European qualifying for the 1982 World Cup and has been a member of European soccer body UEFA since 1994.
The violence in Amsterdam will no doubt lead to a review of security at upcoming matches involving Israeli teams. European soccer body UEFA announced already on Monday that Maccabi’s next Europa League match, scheduled in Istanbul on Nov. 28 against Turkish team Besiktas, would be moved to a yet-to-be-decided neutral venue “following a decision by the Turkish authorities.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s national team is scheduled to play France in Paris on Nov. 14 in the Nations League. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Thursday that the match would go ahead as planned at the Stade de France just outside the French capital after assurances from police.
“I think that for a symbolic reason we must not yield, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans from around the world came together for the Paris Olympics this year to celebrate the “universal values” of sports.
“We will be uncompromising,” he added. “To touch a Jewish compatriot is to touch the republic.”
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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.
Mike Corder, The Associated Press