Amsterdam – Anti-Semitic rioters “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them” after a football match in Amsterdam, authorities in the Netherlands said on Friday, with police reporting that five people had been hospitalized and 62 people arrested after a night of violence in between. The police did not mention the nationalities of those injured or arrested after the chaos in the Dutch capital.
The Israeli government said it was helping coordinate flights home for Israeli fans caught up in the violence.
Israel “made every effort to ensure the safety and security of our citizens who were brutally attacked during the horrific anti-Semitic incident in Amsterdam,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “It was decided that it was not necessary to send a professional rescue mission to the Netherlands. Instead, efforts will be focused on providing civil aviation solutions for the recovery of our citizens.”
Israel’s airport authority said the first of two planes sent to take the country’s citizens home had taken off from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv and was expected to arrive in Amsterdam within a few hours.
X/iAnnet via REUTERS.
Dutch leaders also condemned the violence against Israeli fans as anti-Semitic.
The attacks on fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv football club took place after a Europa League football match between their team and local Amsterdam side Ajax, but there had also been clashes between Israeli fans and locals before the match.
The violence broke out despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the football stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who feared clashes would break out between demonstrators and supporters of the Israeli club.
The violent clashes reportedly took place around midnight local time, with numerous fights and vandalism in central Amsterdam. Before the match, many Maccabi fans were among hundreds of people who marched through Amsterdam in a pro-Israel demonstration, lighting torches and reportedly pulling down Palestinian flags hanging in some streets. There were clashes with pro-Palestinian residents before the match.
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In an earlier statement, Netanyahu’s office had said the prime minister had ordered two “rescue planes” sent to Amseterdam to evacuate Israeli citizens, but that decision was later reversed. Netanyahu’s office also banned all members of the country’s military from flying to the Netherlands indefinitely.
“The harsh images of the attack on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that the Israeli government “considers the premeditated anti-Semitic attack on Israeli citizens with the utmost seriousness.”
Netanyahu’s office demanded that the Dutch government take “strong and swift action” against those involved.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on social media that he followed reports of the violence ‘with horror’.
“Completely unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with all those involved,” he added, saying he had spoken to Netanyahu and “emphasizing that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital.”
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The Israeli embassy in Washington said on The embassy blamed a “mob targeting innocent Israelis.”
Geert Wilders, the far-right nationalist lawmaker whose Freedom Party won elections in the Netherlands last year and who is a staunch ally of Israel, responded to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan surrounded by several men.
“It looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum who attacked the supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in the Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” said Wilders.
