Police have launched a large-scale investigation after gangs of youths carried out what Amsterdam’s mayor known as “hit-and-run” assaults towards followers, apparently impressed by calls on social media to focus on Jews.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof canceled a visit to the COP29 local weather talks in Azerbaijan so he might keep within the Netherlands to take care of the fallout from assaults on followers of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer membership in Amsterdam, which authorities condemned as anti-Semitic.
The authorities will focus on Thursday night’s violence at a cupboard assembly on Monday, Schoof posted in X, saying it should maintain talks on preventing anti-Semitism on Tuesday.
Police have launched a large-scale investigation after gangs of youths carried out what Amsterdam’s mayor known as “hit-and-run” assaults towards followers, apparently impressed by calls on social media to focus on Jews.
Five individuals had been handled in hospitals and greater than 60 suspects had been arrested.
The Amsterdam prosecutor’s workplace mentioned 4 of the suspects, together with two minors, remained in custody on Saturday and will probably be arraigned subsequent week.
Prosecutors mentioned in an announcement that they anticipate extra arrests as investigators evaluate video pictures of the violence.
None of the arrests made thus far have been for violence after the sport, prosecutors mentioned.
Israeli police helping the Dutch investigation mentioned in an announcement that officers and forensic identification consultants met with followers returning on 9 flights from Amsterdam.
“Among them there have been over 170 witnesses and greater than 230 victims and forensic proof was collected from dozens of them,” the assertion mentioned, including that movies of violent incidents within the Dutch capital had been additionally collected.
In addition to the police investigation and an impartial inquiry introduced by the mayor of Amsterdam, Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel mentioned in a letter to lawmakers that the federal government is investigating whether or not warnings of attainable violence by Israel had been been uncared for within the pre-Europe interval. Championship match between Ajax and Maccabi.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar traveled to the Netherlands on Friday and provided Israel’s assist in the police investigation and met together with his Dutch counterpart Caspar Veldkamp.
Schoof advised X that he advised Saar “that the Dutch authorities is doing every thing it may possibly to make sure that the Jewish neighborhood in our nation feels secure.”
In an announcement launched after the assembly, Saar mentioned he advised Schoof that the assaults on Jews and Israelis “and the demand by the attackers to current passports to show their identification, are harking back to darkish intervals in historical past. He confused that Israel can not settle for the persecution of Jews and Israelis on European soil.”
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema mentioned the Dutch counter-terrorism watchdog had reported earlier than the match that there was no “concrete risk” to Israeli followers and that the match was not thought of excessive threat.
Nonetheless, Amsterdam authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration in entrance of the Johan Cruyff Arena the place Thursday night’s match was performed.
ANNOUNCEMENTThe video additionally confirmed a big crowd of Israeli followers chanting anti-Arab insults on their technique to the match.
Afterwards, youths on scooters and on foot went in the hunt for Israeli followers, punching and kicking them after which shortly fleeing to flee lots of of cops deployed across the metropolis, Halsema mentioned.
Schoof returned early from the European Union summit in Hungary and met with representatives of the Jewish neighborhood within the Netherlands on Friday night.
“It was a compelling dialog in regards to the disappointment and uncertainty skilled within the Jewish neighborhood. Every day they expertise the implications of rising anti-Semitism within the Netherlands,” Schoof mentioned on X.
ANNOUNCEMENTA ban on demonstrations was in place throughout Amsterdam over the weekend and safety was tightened at Jewish websites within the metropolis, which has a big Jewish neighborhood and was dwelling to World War II Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her household as they they had been hiding from the Nazi occupiers. .
