Israeli soccer fans attack in Amsterdam, authorities say

Roving gangs on scooters attacked and beat Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, overnight in an outbreak of what authorities called anti-Semitic violence.

Footage circulating on social media showed supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team being chased and assaulted on Thursday night, with video geolocated by NBC News near Amsterdam Central Station showing fighting in the street between the Israelis and their attackers.

“Boys on scooters crossed the city looking for Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters,” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said. “It was a hit-and-run. Football fans were beaten and scared, then the rioters quickly left, fleeing the police force who arrived en masse yesterday.”

A separate video geolocated by NBC News showed Israeli fans taunting pro-Palestinian protesters either before or after Thursday’s game by chanting “Death to the Arabs” and “Let the IDF win. We will screw the Arabs,” as well as tearing down a Palestinian flag .

The war in Gaza sparked by the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, has sparked outrage across Europe, including in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam, like many major cities around the world, has been rocked by large protests condemning the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza, the death of more than 43,000 Palestinians and the destruction of much of the enclave.

When images of the unfolding violence went viral in Holocaust heroine Anne Frank’s hometown, the Israelis sent commercial planes to bring the fans home.

“Yesterday there was an outbreak of anti-Semitism that we had hoped not to see again in Amsterdam,” Halsema said. “I express the strongest condemnation of the violence that has taken place. Among our Jewish Amsterdam residents there is fear, dismay, anger, disbelief.”

The fighting broke out after the match between the Israeli team and the Dutch club Ajax. There have been outbreaks of football hooliganism and fighting between fans of rival clubs around the world for many years, but it is unclear how much of that contributed to the violence in this case.

“Rebels” had “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and attack them,” Halsema’s office said in a statement.

At a press conference on Friday, Halsema said the city has taken emergency measures to prevent further violence, including a three-day ban on all demonstrations.

Police said five people needed hospital treatment, while 20 to 30 others suffered non-serious injuries and at least 62 people were arrested.

Eyewitness describes attack

Iddo Gold, 23, told NBC News in a video call Friday that he and other Maccabi fans had taken the train into downtown Amsterdam after the game. They were ambushed when they got there, he said.

“Everybody was running through the streets,” Gold said. “Whatever they saw on the street, they tried to attack us with.”

Gold said they were chased by assailants on motorbikes and some of their pursuers were armed with knives. He said they fled to their hotels and he let a fellow fan stay with him because he was too scared to venture outside.

As dawn broke, Gold said they were still too “scared to walk the streets.”

In a video shared by the Israeli embassy in Washington, which NBC News has not been able to independently verify, a man could be seen being beaten while an attacker shouts: “This is for the children! Free Palestine now!”

Tevel Caro, 18, said he and a friend had already made it back to their hotel when they started receiving messages from other Maccabi fans about what was going on outside.

On Friday, Caro said he was sheltering in a safe house with dozens of other Israelis, worried about how they would get back home.

Caro, who said he will soon complete his mandatory Israeli military service, said he was disappointed that Israel did not deploy military aircraft in addition to the El Al planes.

“I felt so lonely,” Caro said. “You know like I’m going to be deployed in two weeks and nobody cares about me.”

The Ajax team has historically drawn fans from Amsterdam’s large Jewish community. The confrontation between the Israelis and the pro-Palestinians was more about Gaza than football.

Even before the match, tensions were simmering between Israeli fans and local Palestinian supporters, Amsterdam’s acting police chief, Peter Holla, said at a press conference on Friday.

As a precaution, hundreds of extra police officers were sent to Amsterdam, Hollas said.

Some of the Israeli fans heightened tensions, Holla said, by attacking a taxi on Wednesday as well as a Palestinian flag.

There was also a confrontation before the game between Israeli fans and pro-Palestinian protesters, and police struggled to keep the two groups apart, Holla said.

World leaders condemn violence

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was “appalled by the anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens.”

He described the violence as “totally unacceptable” and said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone “to emphasize that the perpetrators will be identified and brought to justice.”

Other European leaders echoed those sentiments, with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock calling the images from Amsterdam “appalling and deeply shameful for us in Europe” in a post on X.

Netanyahu was briefed in the Foreign Ministry’s situation room on Friday.

In comments shared by his office, he said Israel “cannot accept this” and that the violence “puts us and them, the free countries and the Netherlands, at risk.”

Netanyahu compared the incident to the Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass,” when almost exactly 86 years ago, on November 9, 1938, Nazi mobs in Germany launched pogroms and vandalized Jewish-owned homes, synagogues and businesses.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke directly to King Willem-Alexander about the “anti-Semitic pogrom” in Amsterdam, said the Dutch royal family. The king expressed his shock, saying that “history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse, with terrible consequences.”

“The Jews must feel safe in Holland,” said the king.

US Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, condemned the incident and also said it was “horribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom”.

Lipstadt said she was also “deeply disturbed by the length of time the reported attacks lasted and called on the government to conduct a thorough investigation into the intervention of the security forces and into how these despicable attacks took place.”

European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, condemned the violence on Friday and said it trusted the authorities to “identify and charge as many of those responsible for such acts as possible.”

UEFA said in a statement that it planned to “investigate all official reports, collect available evidence, assess it and evaluate any further appropriate course of action in accordance with its relevant regulatory framework.”

The growing war in the Middle East has sparked protests around the world, including at sporting events. A giant “Free Palestine” banner was unveiled at a Paris Saint Germain game on Wednesday, drawing criticism from France’s interior minister. Israel’s national team is scheduled to play against France in Paris on November 14.