A first plane carrying Israeli supporters evacuated from Amsterdam landed in Tel Aviv on Friday, the day after violence on the sidelines of a Football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, which sparked reactions of indignation in the world.
Dutch police reported five people briefly hospitalized and 62 arrests after the night's violence, described as an “explosion of anti-Semitism” by the mayor of the city, to which Israel dispatched planes to repatriate supporters.
In addition to regular flights, four special evacuation flights were planned for Friday and two more for Saturday, according to a spokeswoman for Israeli airline El Al.
“This means that around 1,850 Israelis will return from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv,” she said.
This violence represents an “explosion of anti-Semitism” that “has not been seen for a long time,” said Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, citing people who beat supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv team before to flee, with “hooligans on scooters” looking for Israeli supporters.
She also announced a strengthening of security measures as well as a temporary ban on demonstrations in the capital.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof described the night's “anti-Semitic attacks” as “unacceptable”.
– Police on alert –
Widely deployed on Thursday before the match, the Dutch police were on alert after a Palestinian flag was torn down the day before from a facade on a major avenue in the city center.
“The violence had already started on Wednesday evening between supporters. It was a night with incidents on both sides. Maccabi supporters removed a flag from a facade of the Rokin and destroyed a taxi. A Palestinian flag was set on fire on the dam,” Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said on Friday.
During the night, “the police had to intervene several times to protect the Israeli supporters and escort them to their hotels”, according to the Dutch authorities.
“Despite the massive police presence in the city, Israeli supporters were injured,” they added.
– Indignant reactions –
Several heads of state have expressed their indignation.
US President Joe Biden described as “abject” these “anti-Semitic attacks” which recall “dark moments in history, when Jews were persecuted”.
“Shocked” by this violence, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned “all forms of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia”, while the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, denounced “attacks vile.”
The head of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Saar, spoke with his Dutch counterpart, Caspar Veldkamp, asking him to “ensure the immediate safety of all those in danger”.
– “Appalling incident” –
In Israel, the scenes of violence aroused strong emotion, in a context marked by the rise in anti-Semitic acts in the world since the war between Israel and Hamas, with representatives of the EU and the United States deploring in September a “tsunami of anti-Semitism”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he considered “the appalling incident with the greatest seriousness” and “demanded (Dutch authorities) to act vigorously and quickly against the rioters.”
He also ordered Mossad, Israeli foreign intelligence, to develop an action plan to prevent violence during future sporting events.
These events have “nothing to do with football”, commented Maccabi Tel Aviv boss Ben Mansford on his return to Israel.
“The fact that I was attacked because I was Jewish and I came to support my team makes no sense. It's not linked to football, it's linked to anti-Semitism and hatred.” , says Amit Ganor, a 21-year-old Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter, from Amsterdam-Schiphol airport.
Founded under another name in 1906, Maccabi Tel Aviv is Israel's oldest and most successful club.
Its supporters are not particularly known to be violent, but images circulating Friday on social networks and presented as filmed in Amsterdam – the origin of which AFP has not yet been able to verify – show what appears to be dozens of fans of the club chanting in Hebrew “May the Israeli army win! We're going to screw the Arabs!”.
Thursday afternoon, around a hundred Israeli supporters gathered on Dam Square, surrounded by a large police force, before going to the Johan Cruyff stadium in Amsterdam.
In a statement, the Palestinian Football Association denounced the “anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia demonstrated by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, who also attacked houses and shops displaying the Palestinian flag in solidarity with the victims of the ongoing genocide”.
A pro-Palestinian rally condemning the arrival of the Israeli club was initially planned near the stadium, but was moved a little further into the neighborhood by the town hall for security reasons.
The Israeli Prime Minister's office called on supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball section to avoid a club match on Friday in Italy, saying they feared “a wave of similar actions”. However, the meeting did not give rise to any incident.
Asked about the France-Israel football match, scheduled for Thursday at the Stade de France, the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, declared that he would not accept its relocation. “France is not backing down because that would amount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and anti-Semitism,” he wrote on X.
