Israeli football supporters attacked during the night from Thursday to Friday in Amsterdam suffered “a mass lynching”, denounced this Friday morning the president of Crif, Yonathan Arfi, expressing his “concern” and his “anger” on BFMTV.
Clashes broke out overnight from Thursday to Friday in Amsterdam following a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, with Israel denouncing “appalling” violence against its supporters and sending planes to their provide assistance.
“This is mass lynching, a systematic attack on Israeli supporters after the match,” said the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, deploring an insufficient security system. “It is the crassest anti-Semitism that resurfaces through these images,” he said, judging that Israeli supporters had been targeted “not only in the name of the conflict happening in Gaza but also because 'They are Jews.'
Asked about the France-Israel match, scheduled for next Thursday at the Stade de France, Yonathan Arfi said he was “worried” but in favor of maintaining it.
“If we relocated this match, if we canceled it in France, but what symbol would it be? (…) I believe that on the contrary we must maintain this match, put the necessary security resources on site” but also “in the streets of Paris”, he said.
In a message posted shortly after on the social network X, Yonathan Arfi added: “Free Palestine has unfortunately become a hateful rallying cry, misused to justify unacceptable violence. (…) This is an immense challenge to Europe.”
