Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam, with 5 reportedly hospitalized and dozens of suspects arrested
Amsterdam — Antisemitic rioters "actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them" after a soccer match in Amsterdam, authorities in the Netherlands said Friday, with police reporting five people hospitalized and 62 detained after a night of violence that the mayor said had shamed the city. The police did not mention the nationality of any of those injured or arrested after the unrest in the Dutch capital.
Israel's government said it was helping coordinate flights home for Israeli fans caught up in the violence.
Israel was "doing everything to ensure the safety and security of our citizens who were brutally attacked in the horrific anti-Semitic incident in Amsterdam," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement. "It was decided that it was not necessary to send a professional rescue mission to the Netherlands. Instead, the effort will be focused on providing civil aviation solutions for the recovery of our citizens."
Israel's airports authority said the first of two planes sent to Amsterdam to bring Israeli citizens back home after the violence had arrived back at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv Friday afternoon.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof described the violence Friday as a "terrible antisemitic attack" and declared himself "deeply ashamed."
"We will not tolerate (it). We will prosecute the perpetrators," said Schoof. "I'm deeply ashamed that this could happen in the Netherlands in 2024."
The worst of the attacks on fans of soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv reportedly came after a Europa League match between their team and the local Amsterdam team Ajax, but there had been clashes between the Israeli fans and locals before the game, too.
The violence erupted despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the soccer stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who'd feared clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli club.
"This is a very dark moment for the city, for which I am deeply ashamed," Halsema said at a news conference on Friday. "Anti-semitic criminals attacked and assaulted visitors to our city, in hit-and-run actions."
There were clashes before the game, too, as Maccabi fans were among hundreds to march through central Amsterdam in a pro-Israel demonstration, during which flares were lit and Palestinian flags hung on some streets were torn down amid chants of "death to the Arabs." Anger rose as Israeli supporters disrespected a moment of silence.
As CBS News correspondent Ramy Inocencio reports, bloody brawls between rival fans around soccer games in Europe — so called hooliganism — are not new, but since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas and other militants sparked the still-raging war that has killed tens of thousands of people, antisemitism has surged across the continent and beyond.
In an earlier statement, Netanyahu's office had said that the prime minister ordered two "rescue planes" to be sent to Amseterdam to evacuate Israeli citizens, but that decision was later reversed. Netanyahu's office also barred any members of the country's military from flying to the Netherlands for an indefinite period.
"The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked," Netanyahu's office said, adding that Israel's government "views the premeditated antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens with utmost gravity."
Netanyahu's office demanded the Dutch government take "vigorous and swift action" against those involved.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on social media that he followed reports of the violence "with horror."
"Completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with everyone involved," he added, saying he'd spoken with Netanyahu and "emphasized that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital."
In a post on the social media platform X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog Israel denounced the attacks as a "pogrom," referring to the historic racist attacks on Jews in Russia and eastern Europe, and said they were reminiscent of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington said on X that "hundreds" of Maccabi fans were "ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following a game," according to AFP. The embassy blamed the violence on a "mob who targeted innocent Israelis."
Geert Wilders, the far-right nationalist lawmaker whose Party for Freedom won elections in the Netherlands last year and who's a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan being surrounded by several men.
"Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable," Wilders said.