Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam, with 5 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 dozens 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.

The five people treated in the hospital were released, while some 20 to 30 people suffered light injuries, police said. At least 62 suspects were arrested, with 10 still in custody, the city’s public prosecutor, René de Beukelaer, told reporters at a news conference Friday.

The attacks were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe. In the U.S., President Biden said antisemitism must be fought wherever it emerges.

“The Antisemitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam are despicable and echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted,” Mr. Biden said on social media. “We’ve been in touch with Israeli and Dutch officials and appreciate Dutch authorities’ commitment to holding the perpetrators accountable. We must relentlessly fight Antisemitism, wherever it emerges.”

Police said security will be beefed up at Jewish institutions across the city, which has a large Jewish community and was home to Jewish World War II diarist Anne Frank and her family as they hid from Nazi occupiers.

The Israeli government said it 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 a plane sent to Amsterdam to bring Israeli citizens back home after the violence had arrived back at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv Friday afternoon. Israel’s government initially ordered two planes, but Netanyahu’s office later said it would work to help citizens arrange commercial flights.

Condemnation of the violence poured in from around Europe. “Antisemitism has absolutely no place in Europe, and we are determined to fight it and to fight all forms of hatred,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “We want Jewish life and culture to thrive in Europe.”

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.

Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them and then fleeing quickly to evade police, Halsema said.

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.

Maccabi’s CEO, Ben Mansford, spoke to reporters at Israel’s international airport as some fans returned. “Lots of people went to watch a football game … to support Israel, to support the star of David,” he said. For them to be attacked, “that’s very sad times for us all given the last year we’ve had.”

Netanyahu’s office 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.

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 social media post, Israeli President Isaac Herzog 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 social media 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.