Israeli hooligans provoked clashes with Dutch youth in Amsterdam on Thursday after they chanted racist anti-Arab slogans, tore down Palestinian flags and ignored a minute of silence for the Spanish flood victims.
(Article by Huthifa Fayyad and Areeb Ullah republished from MiddleEastEye.net)
Travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans stirred trouble on Wednesday and Thursday in different parts of of the Dutch capital ahead of their Uefa Europa League match against Amsterdam club Ajax.
Hooligans were seen removing at least two Palestinian flags from what appeared to be the front of local residents' homes a night before the match, according to the AD daily newspaper.
An Arab taxi driver was also attacked by mobs who appeared to be with the Israeli fans, although police said they couldn't identify the nationality of the attackers as no arrests were made.
A group of Israeli fans gathered in the Dam Square on Wednesday were filmed sparking confrontations with locals, shouting “Fuck you” at some of them and “Fuck you Palestine”.
Ahead of match on Thursday, fans heading to the Johan Cruyff Arena stadium were seen shouting: “Let the IDF [Israeli army] fuck the Arabs”.
The also refused to participate in a minute of silence before kick-off for at least 200 people who died in the Valencia floods.
The police have not made any known arrests of the Israeli fans involved in provocative act ahead of the match.
Maccabi Tel Aviv hooligans who gathered at Dam Square in Amsterdam sparked tensions by igniting a confrontation with pro-Palestine supporters on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/Q0GYvwm8pi
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The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, had also moved a pro-Palestine protest away from the stadium, which was planned by a group of demonstrators who wanted to express their discontent with hosting the Israeli team.
Amid the provocations against Arabs in the city, clashes erupted between the Israeli hooligans and some youth before and after the match and late into the night.
Footage shared on social media showed people clashing with each other and police intervening. Other videos showed people attacking and chasing some of the Israeli fans. .
Middle East Eye could not independently verify the footage.
A police spokesperson said five people were hospitalised and 62 arrested.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 10 Israelis were wounded and that contact with at least two others had been lost.
Halsema on Friday said the exact figure of those injured and arrested overall was still unclear. She said authorities were still in the process of establishing the full extent of the incident.
Israeli fans violence
Israeli far-right ultras are notorious for anti-Palestinian verbal and physical violence.
In March, travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans brutally beat a man who was carrying a Palestinian flag in Athens ahead of their team's match against Greek team Olympiacos.
Earlier this year, rights group FairSquare had written to Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin and criticised the European footballing body of “double standards” for excluding Russian teams from its competitions since February 2022 but refusing to rule out making a similar move against Israel.
Nicholas McGeehan, who is a founder of FairSquare, highlighted the track record of racist chanting by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and criticised how Dutch authorities painted them as "innocent victims of antisemitism."
“Israel’s most senior leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have openly courted far-right football supporters in Israel and have received their violent support in return. The well-documented racism and violence exhibited by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam mirrors the thuggery of the Israeli government in Gaza and Lebanon,” McGeehan told MEE.
"This does not excuse the violence that was meted out to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, but to present them as innocent victims of antisemitism is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
“To rid European football of the type of genocidal chanting we saw from Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Uefa should remind the Israel Football Association of its obligations under article 7(7) of its statutes to stamp out racist behaviour, and impose appropriate sanctions if the IFA does not take action.”
Dutch politicians condemn own citizens
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the clashes “unacceptable antisemitic attacks” but failed to mention the assaults by the hooligans against Dutch citizens.
In a post on X, Schoof said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and assured him "the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted".
Geert Wilders, an anti-Muslim and pro-Israel leader of the largest party in the Dutch government, called the riots a “pogrom” and a “Jewish hunt”.
He also failed to mention the attacks by the Israeli hooligans and instead called for the arrest and deportation of what he described as the “multicultural scum” involved in the clashes.
Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians also branded the riots as antisemitic, with some comparing it to the 7 October Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
The prime minister said he ordered the sending of two rescue planes to the Netherlands to evacuate the fans.
The Israeli military said it was preparing to deploy a rescue mission with the coordination of Dutch authorities.
However, the military's international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani later said on X the mission would not be departing to Amsterdam.
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