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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 at hospitals and dozens were arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe.
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Reports of antisemitic speech, vandalism and violence have been on the rise in Europe since the start of the war in Gaza, and tensions mounted in Amsterdam ahead of Thursday night’s match between the Dutch team Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators were banned by local authorities from gathering outside the stadium, and video showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans on their way to the game. Afterward, 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.
On the social media platform Telegram, “there is talk of people going on a Jew hunt,” Halsema said. “That is so shocking and so despicable that I still cannot fathom it.” Dutch Minister of Justice and Security David van Weel vowed to track down and prosecute the perpetrators.
Ofek Ziv, a Maccabi fan from the Israeli city of Petah Tikva, said someone threw a rock at his head, causing light bleeding, as he and a friend left the stadium. He said a group of men began to chase him, before he and his friend got into a taxi, picked up other fans and took shelter at a hotel.
“I’m very scared, it’s very striking,” Ziv said. “And the police didn’t come to help us.”
Another Israeli fan, Alyia Cohen, said upon arriving back in Israel that he would go back to Amsterdam for future matches. “We are not afraid of anything, ours is the people of Israel.”
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.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he “views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity.” He demanded that the Dutch government take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.
Condemnation of the violence poured in from around Europe. “Antisemitism has absolutely no place in Europe, and we are determined to fight it and to fight all forms of hatred,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “We want Jewish life and culture to thrive in Europe.”
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof condemned the violence and flew home early from a European Union summit in Hungary.
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 who fled to the city centuries ago.
