60 Arrested in Amsterdam After Anti-Semitic Attacks on Israeli Soccer Fans, Officials Report

Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli soccer fans broke out in Amsterdam, Netherlands, overnight Nov. 8, 2024. Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom via Reuters

Around 60 people have been arrested in Amsterdam after fans of an Israeli soccer team faced overnight anti-Semitic attacks in the streets of the Netherlands’ capital.

Reports of scenes across Amsterdam on the evening of Nov. 7 showed Jewish Israeli football fans being targeted in a series of violent attacks after the match between Maccabi and Ajax Amsterdam.

Social media footage from the evening shows people running for their lives, an unconscious body being kicked in the street, attackers yelling “Free Palestine,” and groups of men checking people’s passports to see if they are Israeli.

Maccabi

Police said 57 suspects had been detained after the game as pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff Arena.

They said fans had left the stadium without incident after the Europa League match, which Ajax won 5–0, but that clashes erupted overnight in the city center.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were “attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks” and that riot police had to intervene several times to protect them and escort them to hotels.

The Israeli government initially was going to send an IDF rescue mission to the Netherlands, though now, efforts will focus on civilian flights to bring Israelis back home.

Israeli planes are now en route to the Netherlands to bring back the [Israeli] citizens, including the wounded, the Israeli government said on X.

Israeli airlines El Al and Arkia said two rescue flights were on the way to Amsterdam.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he views with “utmost gravity the planned anti-Semitic attack against Israeli citizens” and requested that security be increased for the Dutch Jewish community.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “horrified by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens,” which he called “completely unacceptable.”

Dutch politician Geert Wilders delivers a speech at a meeting of European nationalists in Koblenz, Germany, on Jan. 21, 2017. Michael Probst/AP Photo

Politician Geert Wilders, head of the largest party in the Dutch government, said he was “ashamed that this can happen in the Netherlands.”

Wilders, a right-wing populist widely known for his anti-Islam views, has pledged to curb “the asylum tsunami” and immigration to the Netherlands.

Wilders said on X that it was a “Jew hunt in Amsterdam. ”

“It is totally unacceptable that there was insufficient police protection to prevent this violence and protect the people,” he said.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said in a statement, “We are witnessing levels of antisemitism not seen in our lifetime.”

France

France’s interior minister said on Friday that he won’t change its plans to host a Nations League game against Israel next week.

“France is not backing down because that would amount to giving up in the face of threats of violence and anti-Semitism”, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said in a post on X.

Paris police are planning to deploy more than 2,000 officers around the Stade de France to secure the game on Nov. 14, BFM TV reported.

Authorities are also expected to cordon off an unusually large security perimeter.

Holland

According to an EU survey on discrimination against Jews, 90 percent of the respondents in the Netherlands said that anti-Semitism has increased over the past five years.

When describing the perpetrators of the most serious anti-Semitic harassment they had faced in the past five years, 35 percent of respondents identified them as individuals with “Muslim extremist views,” 20 percent said they “could not describe” the person, and 19 percent reported that the perpetrator was a colleague, schoolmate, or someone from work.

Reuters contributed to this report.