The first of six rescue planes sent to bring Israeli football supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday following a horrific night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as ‘anti-Semitic’.
Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a Europa League football tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israel Airports Authority said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered Mossad to draw up a plan to prevent unrest at sporting events in the future.
As calm was brought to the Dutch city following what has now been dubbed ‘a black night’ in Amsterdam, sickening footage and images of the violence began to emerge on social media.
It showed how young men were punched to the head, kicked in their stomachs, knocked unconscious or even forced to jump into the canal to flee baying mobs with knives.
The first of six rescue planes sent to bring Israeli football supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel ‘s Ben Gurion airport on Friday following a horrific night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as ‘anti-Semitic’
Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon
People welcome Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans as they arrive at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on a flight from Amsterdam
Relieved to be home: A fan of the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel-Aviv is met by a family member at Ben Gurion International Airport
Maccabi Tel-Aviv fans carry flags as they wait for the arrival of their friends and family members from Amsterdam, at the Ben Gurion International Airport
A masked mob, some carrying Palestinian flags, are seen running riot through the streets of Amsterdam on Thursday
Many are now describing the shocking assault rained upon Maccabi Tel Aviv fans following the football match in the city as a ‘Jew hunt’.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema did not hold back her disappointment as she labelled the violence as an ‘explosion of anti-Semitism.’
She said today: ‘Boys on scooters were driving through the town looking for Maccabi supporters, it was hit and run.
‘Football fans were attacked and then rioters fled, running away from the police forces.’
She said the events were reminiscent of pogroms – or even Kristallnacht, a night of relentless Nazi violence against the Jews of Germany, which took place exactly 86 years ago today.
Halsema said the city had been ‘deeply damaged, the Jewish culture has been threatened.’
Nauseating videos show the rage and aggression hurled against the Israeli fans on Thursday night.
In one, a young man is callously thrown to the ground as his assailant kicks and thrashes at him, shouting, ‘This is for the children, the children, mother f***er’.
Afraid, the man pleads with him to stop. ‘I’ll give you all my money’, he says, attempting to pull out his wallet.
The attacker is not interested. ‘Free Palestine now,’ he screams. ‘Free Palestine’, he says again, this time in such a way his victim knows he is being ordered to say it too.
Cowering and fearing for his life, he says the words, only to be knocked over again moments later.
In another, a fan has seemingly jumped into the dark canal to escape the aggressors – but stay nearby to prevent him coming out the water. One taunts him with: ‘Say ‘Free Palestine’ and we go’.
Witnesses have told of the shocking ‘anti-Semitic’ scenes that followed a Europa FC match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax on Thursday
Shocking footage that has emerged of Thursday night’s events appear to show a man being kicked by a group of thugs while lying on the ground
One video shows a man being dragged by his coat, with the person taking the video swearing at him and shouting statements in support of Gaza
A third video shows several men dragging their helpless victim along the cobblestones and throwing him to the ground.
‘Gaza, motherf***ers they shout at him’.
Perhaps in one of the more shocking pieces of footage, an unconscious fan lies in the middle of the street as thugs relentlessly kick at his body.
Horrific photographs from the scene also reveal the many other victims whose persecution was not caught on video.
Two young women, one covering her face, the other looking stunned, are seen sitting on the ground.
In another, a British-Jewish man has blood streaming down his face after he intervened in one such attack on an Israeli football fan and was himself assaulted.
The 33-year-old from Hendon, north London, known only as Aaron, told Jewish News last night how the thugs were ‘not looking for Israelis – they were looking for Jews’ during the terrifying night of chaos.
The father-of-two said he witnessed a helpless fan on the ground, ‘his head pinned between a kerb and a metal gate, being viciously kicked.’
He intervened, but moments later, the gang returned and confronted him and his friend, Jacob, ‘Are you Yehudi? Are you Jewish?’
Aaron said: ‘I told him to leave him alone, and the next thing I know he punched me in the face. It was so unexpected.
‘My glasses were broken, my nose split. Blood everywhere.
‘After he punched me, about 20 more came out of their hiding places to effectively finish me off.’
When the leader of the gang said: ‘He’s British, leave him alone’, another responded ‘Yes, but he helped a Jew.’
That,’ says Aaron, ‘is why they were angry. Because I helped a Jew.’
Pro-Palestinian supporters march with Palestinian flags near the Ajax stadium in Amsterdam
With some time to reflect on what had happened to them, many Maccabi fans said they now believe they were the victim of pre-planned attacks – and lives could well have been lost.
One Israeli woman told Dutch media organisation NOS: ‘It seems like it was organised.
‘They jumped on us. They stabbed people. They beat them. They did horrible things.
‘We hid in the hotel until it was safe outside.’
Meanwhile fan Amit Ganor, 21, said he was attacked on the way from the railway station to his hotel.
“We were lucky enough to run and to manage to go to the hotel, but some guys in the streets weren’t able to do this so they got hit,” he told AFP at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
“We came for a football match… We came to support our team and cheer them. The fact that I was attacked, only (for) being Jewish… makes no sense.”
Ten people were injured in the violence, Israeli officials said, with the Times of Israel and other outlets in the country reporting the attacks were largely perpetrated by Amsterdam locals of Arabic origin.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander shared his ‘deep horror and shock’ over the events in a call with Isaac Herzog, telling the Israeli president: ‘We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War Two, and last night we failed again.’
Security forces were today given emergency powers, with police able to search people and face coverings and protests banned across the city as authorities try to reassure the Jewish community in the wake of the shocking violence.
Police are still trying to establish exactly who was behind the horrific attacks and hunt all the perpetrators down.
Amsterdam Mayor Halsema said city police had been taken by surprise after security services failed to flag the match against Ajax Amsterdam, traditionally identified as a Jewish club, as high-risk.
Hours before the match, fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv staged a pro-Israel demonstration at the Dam Square in the city
In the lead-up to the Ajax vs Maccabi Tel Aviv match, several areas of Amsterdam were designated as security risk zones
Some 800 police officers deployed to tackle the violence, but police today admitted that things got out of control.
People who were out in the city at the time were forced to seek shelter in shops, according to reports, while hundreds of Israelis shut themselves in their hotels as they waited for the violence to subside.
One victim suffered a broken leg after being set upon by gang members, according to Dutch media, with authorities saying the rioters were ‘actively looking for Israeli fans’.
‘This outbreak of violence against Israeli fans has crossed all boundaries and cannot be justified,’ police said in a news conference.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof denounced the ‘completely unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis’.
Fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv stage a pro-Israel demonstration at the Dam Square
‘I followed with horror the coverage from Amsterdam,’ Schoof wrote on X, adding that he had spoken with Netanyahu to assure him that ‘the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted’.
Netanyahu’s office said he told Schoof that he ‘views the premeditated anti-Semitic attack against Israeli citizens with utmost seriousness and [has] requested increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands’.
Britain’s Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said on X: ‘Utterly devastating scenes from The Netherlands. Hateful mobs have chased down Jewish & Israeli football fans on the streets of Amsterdam after a match, violently beating them and proudly posting the footage on social media.
‘Many are injured and three people are currently missing. This should be a watershed moment for Europe and for the world, when it realises how severe the scourge of anti-Jewish hatred has become.
‘Sadly, I fear it will not be and that tragically, this will not be the last such attack, God forbid.’
The head of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock CBE, said of the events: ‘We are absolutely horrified at the shocking scenes from Amsterdam where Israeli and Jewish football fans have been hunted down, threatened and beaten up.
‘We are reminded yet again that anti-Semitism starts with words but ends in violence.
‘To see this on the eve of Kristallnacht where Jewish people were attacked, their homes, businesses and synagogues destroyed; and in the city of Anne Frank, must be a wake-up call for the authorities in European countries to deal with this rise of racism.
‘We will redouble our efforts to call out this Jew hatred and demand urgent action whenever and wherever anti-Semitism rears its head.
‘We must all – Jews and non-Jews alike – say enough is enough.’
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was ‘horrified’ by the ‘anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens’.
Tory MP Robert Jenrick posted on X: ‘These weren’t ‘clashes’. It was a modern-day pogrom. And another warning to the West about the consequences of mass migration and failed integration. Wake up before it’s too late.’
Amsterdam police said on social media yesterday that tensions before the match had been high and they were being particularly vigilant in the wake of several incidents, including the tearing down of a Palestinian flag from a building by Maccabi fans.
Footage also emerged of provocative chants including, ‘Let the IDF win, we will f— the Arabs,’ and, ‘F— you, Palestine.’
In another potential football flashpoint, France are scheduled to play Israel in Paris next Thursday.
France’s interior minister said the match would go ahead as planned.
