Dutch police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Amsterdam on Sunday who gathered despite a ban on gatherings in the city, after violence three days ago on the sidelines of a match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel -Aviv.
• Also read: Amsterdam: “appalling” violence against Israeli supporters after a soccer match
• Also read: Horror night in Amsterdam for Israeli supporters
• Also read: Violence against Israelis in Amsterdam: here’s what we know
These arrests come following the confirmation by Dutch justice of the ban, wanted by the city’s mayor, of a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Sunday in Amsterdam.
Despite this ban, several hundred demonstrators went to Dam Square brandishing signs with the inscriptions: “Give us back our streets” or “Free Palestine,” noted an AFP journalist.
Police in riot gear then intervened, arresting demonstrators, shortly after the court’s decision to maintain the ban.
“The mayor has rightly decided that there will be a ban on demonstrations this weekend in the city,” the Amsterdam court announced on X on Sunday, adding that a request to overturn the ban had been “ rejected”.
Dutch activist Frank Van der Linde announced that he wanted to demonstrate in Dam Square against the “genocide in Gaza, but also because [le] right to demonstrate has been withdrawn,” he said, quoted by the Dutch agency ANP.
“This demonstration has nothing to do with anti-Semitism,” said Alexander Van Stokkum, who participated in the rally. She is “against the Israeli hooligans who were destroying our city,” he told AFP.
The Israeli embassy in The Hague advised in a statement Sunday that “Israelis and Jews staying in Amsterdam […] to stay away from demonstrations.
During the night from Thursday to Friday after the Europe League match, Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were violently attacked by groups of individuals in the streets of the city. Clashes which occurred in a context of increasing anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli acts since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
On Thursday, the match took place in a generally calm atmosphere. But some Israeli supporters did not respect the minute of silence in memory of the victims of the floods in Spain, a country which recently recognized the State of Palestine.
“The exit from the stadium went well. Around 11 p.m., the situation around the stadium was calm,” according to Peter Holla, Amsterdam police chief.
The violence then began. Five Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were briefly hospitalized. Police reported around sixty people arrested and Israel organized emergency flights to repatriate its citizens.
According to police, the groups which attacked supporters responded to a call to target Jews launched on social networks.
Videos authenticated by AFP show groups of individuals stalking Israeli supporters, throwing objects at them, hitting them and mistreating them. Between 20 and 30 Maccabi fans suffer injuries.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema spoke at a press conference of groups of individuals targeting supporters of the Israeli club, hitting and kicking them.
“It’s an explosion of anti-Semitism that I hope to never see again,” said Ms. Halsema, who said she was “ashamed” of this violence.
On Saturday, Caspar Veldkamp, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, assured that a “thorough investigation will be carried out in the Netherlands”.
His Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, called the incidents “barbaric violence” against Israelis and Jews, saying that “it is very important that Europe wakes up.”
Tensions were already at their height before the match on Thursday evening, won by Ajax Amsterdam.
From Wednesday, isolated clashes took place between supporters, according to the authorities.
Maccabi fans burned a Palestinian flag in the central Dam Square and vandalized a taxi, Peter Holla said.
In a video posted on social media, the origin of which could not be verified, what appear to be fans of the Maccabi club chant in Hebrew “May the IDF [armée israélienne] won ! We’re going to fuck the Arabs!”
