The mayor of Amsterdam spoke on Tuesday of a “toxic cocktail of anti-Semitism and hooliganism” behind the attacks on Israeli supporters after a football match last week.
Femke Halsema added that “justices have been committed against Jews in our city as well as people belonging to minorities who sympathize with the Palestinians.”
As French police prepare for a heavy presence ahead of Thursday’s football match between France and Israel, Ms. Halsema spoke at an emergency meeting of the Amsterdam city council.
The meeting was held after the Dutch capital was rocked by attacks on Israeli football fans by men of “immigrant background”, according to Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
“Jewish Israeli fans were guests in our city and they were hounded, chased and attacked with anti-Semitic calls on social media and in the streets,” Ms. Halsema said.
“But Amsterdammers were also attacked by Maccabi hooligans who chanted racist and hateful slogans in our city,” she added.
Maccabi fans burned a Palestinian flag in the central Dam Square and vandalized a taxi the day before the clash at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, Amsterdam police said.
The mayor stressed that “a fuller picture of the events of the evening has emerged”, and that “all kinds of terrible things were done”, but that “the police exercised great caution”.
“Urgent measures”
On the night of November 7-8 after a Europa League match between Ajax Amsterdam and Israeli team Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Maccabi supporters were chased and beaten in the streets of Amsterdam.
These attacks, described as anti-Semitic in particular by Israel and the Dutch authorities, left 20 to 30 injured and sparked indignation in many Western capitals.
Isolated incidents had erupted before the match, including anti-Arab chants chanted by Maccabi supporters.
This violence occurred in a context of polarization in Europe, with a rise in anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic acts since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
After the match, groups of men on scooters attacked Maccabi fans in parts of the city, immediately fleeing.
Ms. Halsema clarified that the city’s Jewish institutions, including synagogues, had not been targeted and that the attacks were “purely aimed at Israeli Maccabi fans.”
Police said the attackers were mobilized by calls on social media to attack Jews.
“We must take urgent action to ensure that our Jewish community feels safe in this country,” Dick Schoof said Tuesday after meeting members of the Jewish community at his official residence in The Hague.
He again called for rapid arrests in the case, adding that there was an “integration problem in the Netherlands.”
The Dutch prime minister added that his government would present more concrete plans on Friday to combat anti-Semitism.
Outside Amsterdam City Hall, where the emergency meeting was held, around ten pro-Palestinian activists were present to show their discontent.
“The anger comes from the fact that the super racist hooligans from Maccabi Tel Aviv were allowed to come to the Netherlands to participate in the match,” said Frank van der Linde, a Dutch activist.
“The story revealed that there was certainly much more going on than was initially communicated. But the damage is already done. We are now portrayed around the world as a bunch of anti-Semites. And it’s really horrible,” he lamented.
The mayor of Amsterdam on Tuesday spoke of a “toxic cocktail of anti-Semitism and hooliganism” behind the attacks on Israeli fans after a football match last week. Femke Halsema added that “justices were committed at towards the Jews of our city as well as people belonging to minorities who…
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