Dutch PM cancels climate trip after attacks on Israeli football fans
Assaults on fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv, who were playing Ajax in the Europa League, were condemned as antisemitic.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof has cancelled a trip to United Nations climate talks in Azerbaijan in order to deal with the fallout from assaults on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam.
Authorities condemned assaults on fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv as antisemitic.
The Dutch government will discuss Thursday night’s violence at a Cabinet meeting on Monday, Mr Schoof posted on X, adding that he would hold talks on tackling antisemitism on Tuesday.
Police launched a large-scale investigation after gangs of youths conducted what Amsterdam’s mayor called “hit and run” attacks on fans that were apparently inspired by calls on social media to target Jewish people.
Five people were treated in hospital and more than 60 suspects were arrested.
Amsterdam prosecutors said that four of the suspects, including two minors, remain jailed on Saturday and will be arraigned next week. The prosecutors said they expect more arrests as investigators comb through video images of the violence.
None of the arrests made so far were for violence after the match, prosecutors said.
In addition to the police investigation and an independent inquiry announced by Amsterdam’s mayor, Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel said in a letter to legislators that the government is investigating whether warnings of possible violence from Israel were overlooked in the lead-up to the Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rushed to the Netherlands on Friday and offered Israel’s help in the police investigation.
He met on Saturday with Dutch counterpart Caspar Veldkamp as well as Mr Schoof.
The Dutch Prime Minister said on X that he told Mr Saar “that the Dutch government is doing everything it can to ensure that the Jewish community in our country feels safe”.
In a statement released after meeting, Mr Saar said he told Mr Schoof that the attacks on Jews and Israelis “and the demand by their attackers they present passports to prove their identity, were reminiscent of dark periods in history”. He stressed that Israel could not accept the persecution of Jews and Israelis on European soil.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said that the Netherlands’ counter-terror watchdog had reported before the match there was no “concrete threat” to Israeli fans, and the match wasn’t considered a high risk.
Even so, Amsterdam authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Johan Cruyff Arena where Thursday night’s match was played.
Video also showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans on their way to the game.
Afterwards, youths on scooters and on foot went in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them and then fleeing quickly to evade hundreds of police officers deployed around the city, Ms Halsema said.
Mr Schoof returned early from a European Union summit in Hungary and met representatives of the Jewish community in the Netherlands on Friday night.
“It was a compelling conversation about the sadness and uncertainty experienced in the Jewish community. Every day they experience the consequences of growing antisemitism in the Netherlands,” Mr Schoof said on X.
A ban on demonstrations was in place throughout Amsterdam over the weekend, and security was beefed up at several sites in the city, which has a large Jewish community and was home to Jewish Second World War diarist Anne Frank and her family as they hid from Nazi occupiers.
