Israeli football fans and the violence in Amsterdam: what we know

 

Explainer

Israeli football fans and the violence in Amsterdam: what we know

 

The trouble in the Netherlands when Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax last week horrified people around the world

 

Jon Henley Europe correspondent

Mon 11 Nov 2024 15.20 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/11/what-happened-amsterdam-israeli-football-fans

 

Violence in Amsterdam around a Europa League football match between the local team Ajax and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv sparked horror around the world, against a backdrop of soaring antisemitic and Islamophobic abuse and attacks across Europe fuelled by the Middle East conflict.

 

The Amsterdam mayor, Femke Halsema, has said she had not been told the match was high-risk, although earlier last week the Turkish club Beşiktaş moved their match against Maccabi to a neutral country for fear of “provocative actions”.

 

Here is what we know so far about how events unfolded – and politicians reacted.

 

What happened on Wednesday night?

The first incidents were reported on Wednesday evening, the day before the match. Police say Maccabi fans tore a Palestinian flag down from the facade of a building and burned it, shouted “fuck you, Palestine”, and vandalised a taxi.

 

After a radio callout a number of taxi drivers converged on a casino on the nearby Max Euweplein, where about 400 Israeli supporters had gathered. Police dispersed the taxi drivers and escorted supporters out of the casino.

 

Verified social media videos show Maccabi fans setting off flares and fireworks, chanting in Hebrew “olé, olé, let the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] win, we will fuck the Arabs”, and declaring that there were “no children” left in Gaza.

 

Amsterdam has a large Muslim community and has allowed more than 2,500 protests against the war in Gaza so far this year.

 

What happened the next day?

There were further clashes on Thursday afternoon on the central Dam Square, where a large crowd of Maccabi supporters had gathered. Police said pro-Palestine demonstrators tried to reach the square. Two arrests were made.

 

Maccabi supporters were filmed chanting anti-Arab slogans on their way to the Johan Cruyff Arena. Police escorted the 2,600 fans to the game and dispersed protesters defying a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the stadium.

 

After the match, which Ajax won 5-0, there were numerous attacks, described by Halsema as “hit and run”, on Maccabi supporters across the city centre. Footage showed masked youths on scooters and ebikes seeking out, chasing down and beating victims – mostly in Maccabi colours – until about 4am.

 

Witness accounts and screenshots of mobile phone message exchanges suggest some were targeted as Jews, being asked if they were Jewish or to show their passports. False reports circulated that Maccabi supporters had gone missing or been taken hostage. Five people were hospitalised and 20 to 30 slightly injured.

 

Footage has also emerged of Maccabi supporters close to Amsterdam central railway station setting off fireworks, chanting anti-Palestine slogans and taking iron scaffolding tubes and wooden planks from a building site to use as weapons. Other footage shows Maccabi fans running through the streets swinging belts.

 

How did the authorities respond?

About 800 police made a total of 62 arrests before and during the match, mostly for public order offences. Four people are still in custody. The first person arrested for violence after the match after being identified from CCTV was detained on Saturday.

 

A partial state of emergency was declared in Amsterdam and the surrounding area, giving police the right to carry out random stop-and-search operations. Extra police were drafted in, security stepped up at Jewish buildings, and protests banned.

 

 

At a press conference on Friday, Halsema said the violence “brings back memories of pogroms. It is deeply damaging to the city. Jewish culture has been deeply threatened. This is an outburst of antisemitism that I hope to never see again.”

 

About 75% of Dutch Jews, most living in Amsterdam, were killed in the Holocaust, the highest proportion in western Europe.

 

The public prosecutor, René de Beukelaer, said the investigation would focus on antisemitism as a motive. Police were analysing footage to identify the perpetrators and social media to establish how far the attacks were organised, he said. Officials are also looking into claims that Israel had warned Dutch authorities of potential trouble.

 

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was dispatching two planes with soldiers and medical teams to evacuate Israelis, but they never materialised and the Maccabi supporters ended up going home on El Al flights.

 

What was the political fallout?

Netanyahu condemned a “planned antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens”, later comparing the violence to the murder of an estimated 91 Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938, describing it as “Kristallnacht … on the streets of Amsterdam”.

 

The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, called the events “an antisemitic pogrom” and “a warning sign for any country that wishes to uphold the values of freedom”. The Dutch king said Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands.

 

“We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during the second world war,” Willem-Alexander said, “and last night we failed again”. The US president, Joe Biden, called the violence “despicable” and an echo of “dark moments in history”.

 

The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, called it “shameful”, “unacceptable” and a “turning point”. He invited Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, for talks in The Hague, where the two agreed on the urgency of fighting rising antisemitism.

 

Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islam Freedom party finished first in the most recent Dutch elections but who has no formal role in the government himself, called in a series of inflammatory social media posts for Halsema to resign.

 

There had been “a Jew hunt” in Amsterdam, posted Wilders, who has called Islam “an ideology of a retarded culture” and Moroccans “scum”. He added: “Muslims with Palestinian flags hunting down Jews.” He vowed to “stop and expel Islamic radicals”.