Travelling fans verbally abuse locals and tear down Palestine flags before fights break out with Dutch youth
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters light flares in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 7 November (Reuters)
By Huthifa Fayyad and Areeb Ullah
Published date: 8 November 2024 08:35 GMT | Last update: 1 day 10 hours ago
Israeli hooligans provoked clashes with Dutch youth in Amsterdam on Thursday after they chanted racist anti-Arab slogans, tore down Palestinian flags and ignored a minute of silence for the Spanish flood victims.
Travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans stirred trouble on Wednesday and Thursday in different parts of of the Dutch capital ahead of their Uefa Europa League match against Amsterdam club Ajax.
Hooligans were seen removing at least two Palestinian flags from what appeared to be the front of local residents’ homes a night before the match, according to the AD daily newspaper.
An Arab taxi driver was also attacked by mobs who appeared to be with the Israeli fans, although police said they couldn’t identify the nationality of the attackers as no arrests were made.
A group of Israeli fans gathered in the Dam Square on Wednesday were filmed sparking confrontations with locals, shouting “Fuck you” at some of them and “Fuck you Palestine”.
Ahead of match on Thursday, fans heading to the Johan Cruyff Arena stadium were seen shouting: “Let the IDF [Israeli army] fuck the Arabs”.
The also refused to participate in a minute of silence before kick-off for at least 200 people who died in the Valencia floods.
The police have not made any known arrests of the Israeli fans involved in provocative act ahead of the match.
The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, had also moved a pro-Palestine protest away from the stadium, which was planned by a group of demonstrators who wanted to express their discontent with hosting the Israeli team.
Amid the provocations against Arabs in the city, clashes erupted between the Israeli hooligans and some youth before and after the match and late into the night.
Footage shared on social media showed people clashing with each other and police intervening. Other videos showed people attacking and chasing some of the Israeli fans. .
Middle East Eye could not independently verify the footage.
A police spokesperson said five people were hospitalised and 62 arrested.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 10 Israelis were wounded and that contact with at least two others had been lost.
Halsema on Friday said the exact figure of those injured and arrested overall was still unclear. She said authorities were still in the process of establishing the full extent of the incident.
Israeli fans violence
Israeli far-right ultras are notorious for anti-Palestinian verbal and physical violence.
In March, travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans brutally beat a man who was carrying a Palestinian flag in Athens ahead of their team’s match against Greek team Olympiacos.
Earlier this year, rights group FairSquare had written to Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin and criticised the European footballing body of “double standards” for excluding Russian teams from its competitions since February 2022 but refusing to rule out making a similar move against Israel.
‘To present them as innocent victims of antisemitism is a gross misrepresentation of the facts’
– Nicholas McGeehan, FairSquare founder
Nicholas McGeehan, who is a founder of FairSquare, highlighted the track record of racist chanting by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and criticised how Dutch authorities painted them as “innocent victims of antisemitism.”
“Israel’s most senior leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have openly courted far-right football supporters in Israel and have received their violent support in return. The well-documented racism and violence exhibited by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam mirrors the thuggery of the Israeli government in Gaza and Lebanon,” McGeehan told MEE.
“This does not excuse the violence that was meted out to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, but to present them as innocent victims of antisemitism is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
“To rid European football of the type of genocidal chanting we saw from Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Uefa should remind the Israel Football Association of its obligations under article 7(7) of its statutes to stamp out racist behaviour, and impose appropriate sanctions if the IFA does not take action.”
Dutch politicians condemn own citizens
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the clashes “unacceptable antisemitic attacks” but failed to mention the assaults by the hooligans against Dutch citizens.
In a post on X, Schoof said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and assured him “the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted”.
Israel’s president meets Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders in Amsterdam
Geert Wilders, an anti-Muslim and pro-Israel leader of the largest party in the Dutch government, called the riots a “pogrom” and a “Jewish hunt”.
He also failed to mention the attacks by the Israeli hooligans and instead called for the arrest and deportation of what he described as the “multicultural scum” involved in the clashes.
Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians also branded the riots as antisemitic, with some comparing it to the 7 October Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
The prime minister said he ordered the sending of two rescue planes to the Netherlands to evacuate the fans.
The Israeli military said it was preparing to deploy a rescue mission with the coordination of Dutch authorities.
However, the military’s international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani later said on X the mission would not be departing to Amsterdam.
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We must not turn blind eye to antisemitism, says Dutch king after attacks on Israeli football fans
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Paul Kirby BBC News
1:16Clashes in Amsterdam as Maccabi Tel Aviv play Ajax
The Dutch king says Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands, after violent attacks against Israeli football fans in the centre of Amsterdam.
Willem-Alexander said “our history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse,” adding that the country could not ignore “antisemitic behaviour”.
Youths on scooters had criss-crossed the Dutch capital in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters who were visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match, authorities said.
Police said five people were treated in hospital and others suffered minor injuries. At least 62 people have been arrested.
“My heart goes out to the victims and to their families here and in Israel as well,” Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema told a press conference on Friday.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof flew back early from a summit of EU leaders in Budapest where he said he had been following developments with horror.
“The perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted,” he promised.
The violence on Thursday night was condemned by leaders across Europe, the US and Israel. For many, it was especially shocking coming on the eve of commemorations marking Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogroms against German Jews.
Three-quarters of Jewish people in the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust in World War Two.
- Israeli fans describe violence in Amsterdam
- Are you in Amsterdam? Please share your experiences here.
The king alluded to that history, saying: “Jews must feel safe in the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times. We put our arms around them and will not let them go.”
US President Joe Biden said the attacks “echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted”.
There had already been trouble and some arrests the night before Thursday’s match, involving Maccabi fans as well as pro-Palestinian protesters.
Police chief Peter Holla confirmed there had been incidents “on both sides”. Israeli supporters had removed a Palestinian flag from a wall and set it alight and attacked a taxi, although there had been no further trouble until the following night, he said.
There were also reports of supporters setting off fireworks. One unverified video showed fans going down an escalator chanting anti-Arab slogans.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “anti-Arab chants” and an “attack on the Palestinian flag,” calling on the Dutch government to “protect Palestinians and Arabs” living in the Netherlands.
The national co-ordinator for combating antisemitism in the Netherlands said a line had been crossed and the “readiness to commit such violence was disgusting”.
Mayor Halsema said Dutch counter-terror co-ordinator NCTV had not flagged any concrete threat about the game itself as there was no animosity between the fans of the two clubs. There was no trouble at the game in which Ajax inflicted a heavy 5-0 defeat on the visiting team.
But the unrest spiralled out of control soon afterwards.
Halsema spoke of fans being “attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks” as they walked from the Johan Cruyff Arena to the centre of Amsterdam.
Police initially said it was unclear who had taken part in the riots, although the mayor later spoke of young men on scooters. She was careful not to give details about the ethnic backgrounds of those involved in the attack, emphasising that it was part of the police investigation.
Several videos circulated on social media, with one showing a man being kicked and beaten on the ground and another showing someone being run over. In some unverified videos, people could be heard shouting pro-Palestinian slogans.
Two British visitors said they came under attack as they tried to help an Israeli beaten up by people on mopeds. Jacob, 33, told the BBC he saw “10 people stamping and kicking” the man, and that they had seen “lots of little gangs chasing people”.
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Asked whether locals had been provoked by a Palestinian flag being torn down in the city, the mayor said what had happened in the centre of her city had nothing to do with protests about the situation in the Middle East.
“I am deeply ashamed of the behaviour that unfolded,” Halsema told reporters. “On Telegram [messaging] groups people talked of going to hunt down Jews. It’s so terrible I can’t find the words for it.”
In a statement, Telegram said it had closed a group chat on the platform which “may have been linked to the disturbance”. The company said it did not tolerate “calls to violence” and would cooperate with the Dutch authorities.
The mayor confirmed reports that taxi drivers had been involved in the attacks, after the head of the Netherlands’ Central Jewish Committee (CJO) said they had “moved in groups and cornered their targets”.
Israeli airline El Al said it was operating free “rescue flights” to Amsterdam to bring passengers back to Israel.
On Friday, those flights started arriving back at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, where passengers were swarmed by reporters in the arrival hall and asked to share their experiences of the violence.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke of a “pogrom” against Maccabi fans and Israeli citizens.
Herzog said on X that he trusted the Dutch authorities would act immediately to “protect, locate and rescue all Israelis and Jews under attack”.
The violence in Amsterdam has raised questions about security for Israeli fans elsewhere in Europe.
Israel’s national security council had urged fans to avoid a basketball game in the Italian city of Bologna on Friday due to the risk of “copycat actions”, though there were no reports of violence following the EuroLeague fixture.
According to Italian media, Bologna’s police chief assigned a special escort to the Israeli players for their travel to the match, which Virtus Bologna won 84-77.
source https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2y33ee1klo
Categories: Israel, Netherlands, Palestine