Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsma said that fans of the Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv were beaten by “criminal groups” in the early hours of Friday morning, after a match with the Dutch team Ajax Amsterdam.
The police reported that dozens of Israeli fans were chased and assaulted, and that five of them were injured and required to be taken to the hospital for treatment.
Police arrested a total of 63 suspects and authorities promised to conduct an investigation, while politicians from inside and outside the country expressed their condemnation of the violence.
Here’s a closer look at how the situation escalated.
Police said tensions began to escalate on Wednesday when minor skirmishes broke out between some of Maccabi’s 3,000 fans and local residents, including taxi drivers and Ajax fans, in the city centre.
A police report stated that groups of Maccabi fans burned a Palestinian flag in Dam Square, dropped another flag from a nearby building, and vandalized a taxi.
After an appeal on social media, Muslim taxi drivers gathered in anger in front of a gambling hall where 400 Maccabi supporters were gathering, prompting police to intervene amid the skirmishes.
Dutch media reported on two video clips that were said to show the beating of a Muslim taxi driver and a group of young men chanting anti-Semitic statements towards a person said to be a Maccabi supporter who was thrown into a canal.
Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of these facts as stated in the two clips.
On the day of the match, video clips verified by Reuters showed Maccabi fans chanting anti-Arab phrases in front of the National Monument in the main Dam Square in Amsterdam, including obscene phrases against Palestine.
The police took security measures to guard the place, but there were reports of clashes occurring in its vicinity.
Dutch pro-Palestinian groups announced their intention to organize a demonstration in front of the stadium during the match, saying that the match should have been canceled due to what are said to be war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.
Israel denies committing war crimes, says it is defending itself, and accuses Hamas of responsibility for the killing of civilians, which the movement denies.
The Dutch authorities were aware of the state of anger due to the war in Gaza, but they did not find a reason to cancel the match. Halsma said on Friday that relations between fans of the two teams are generally good.
Ajax has strong ties with Jews, and its fans sometimes carry the Israeli flag in matches, and it also has a large number of Muslim fans.
Jews represent less than one percent of the population of Amsterdam, while Muslims make up about 15 percent of the population.
The conservative Dutch government pledges to implement the strictest European measures to limit immigration and reject asylum seekers.
Incidents related to anti-Semitism have increased in the Netherlands since Israel launched a military campaign on the Gaza Strip after Hamas attacks on Israeli towns in October last year, and a large number of Jewish organizations and schools reported receiving threats and hate messages.
The mayor of Amsterdam decided to move the demonstration that Dutch groups had intended to hold in opposition to the holding of the match to a remote location for fear of a confrontation between demonstrators and football fans, which is seen as the biggest security threat.
F-Side, the most fanatical group among Ajax fans, said politics and football should be kept separate and that they would “intervene if necessary.”
Riot police worked at the stadium to separate the two opposing groups, and there were only a few reports of incidents when the match ended at around 11 p.m.
But security forces lost control of the situation in the city center when clashes broke out in the middle of the night.
Calls began to spread in the Netherlands to target Maccabi supporters, leading to what Mayor Halsma described as “anti-Semitic hit-and-run attacks.”
The police were not able to stop the groups of attackers easily, despite their small number, due to their speed of movement.
The police said that they gathered about 200 Maccabi fans in Dam Square to protect them and accompany them to their hotels, but a large number of them were attacked in other parts of the city, as the perpetrators quickly fled on motorcycles.
Video clips on social media, verified by Reuters, showed groups attacking Israelis, kicking them after they fell, and throwing fireworks. In one case, someone said, “This is Palestine. This is Gaza… Now you know that feeling,” and repeated obscene phrases.
Most of the 63 detainees were later released pending charges.
Amsterdam banned demonstrations at the beginning of this week, and granted police emergency stop and search powers to confront the unrest.
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