the night that pushed the city into ultra-violence – L’Express

During the night of Thursday to Friday, November 8, clashes broke out in Amsterdam on the sidelines of a football match between Ajax Amsterdam and the Israeli club Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Violence which sparked reactions of indignation. Here’s what we know.

Five people hospitalized and around sixty arrests

It was the middle of the night from November 7 to 8 when clashes broke out in the center of Amsterdam. Israeli supporters are attacked following the football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, won by the Dutch club (5-0). At 1 a.m., a large group of Maccabi supporters had gathered in Dam Square, where they were attacked. Authorities reported people hitting Israeli supporters before fleeing, calling them “hooligans on scooters.” “A large number of vehicles from the mobile unit are present and reinforcements have also been called. Young people are also said to have provoked the police,” described local media AT5. Police reported five people briefly hospitalized and 62 arrests after the night’s clashes.

In the afternoon, around a hundred Israeli supporters gathered, surrounded by a large police force, before going to the Johan Cruyff stadium, southwest of the Dutch capital. A pro-Palestinian rally condemning the arrival of the Israeli club was initially planned near the stadium, but was moved a little further into the neighborhood by Amsterdam town hall for security reasons.

Widely deployed on Thursday before the match, the Dutch police were on alert after a Palestinian flag was torn down the day before from a facade on a major avenue in the city center. “The violence had already started on Wednesday evening between supporters. It was a night with incidents on both sides. Maccabi supporters removed a flag from a facade of the Rokin and destroyed a taxi. A Palestinian flag was set on fire on the dam,” Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said on Friday.

Emergency repatriations to Israel

After the clashes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered two planes to be sent to Amsterdam on Friday morning intended to repatriate Israeli citizens and supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv. The first landed early Friday afternoon at Ben Gurion Airport. According to the Israeli company El Al, three evacuation flights are also planned in the coming hours, in addition to two regular flights. “Hundreds of Israeli passengers” will be able to board evacuation planes free of charge, she said.

Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev asked her Dutch counterpart, Barry Madlener, to ensure “safe transportation of passengers from hotels to the airport.” She also demanded that Schipol airport in Amsterdam remain open at night this weekend and that “all necessary permits” be granted to Israeli evacuation planes.

An investigation opened to reconstruct the facts

Footage circulating on social media on Friday and presented as filmed in Amsterdam shows what appears to be dozens of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans chanting in Hebrew, “Finish the Arabs! We’re going to win!” or even “Let the IDF win to finish off the Arabs”. In other images, Israeli supporters go to great lengths to tear down a pro-Palestinian flag brandished through a window on a main avenue in the city center, which they took to get to the stadium. Other videos also show people knocking Israeli supporters to the ground and beating them. “We have seen these images and we are examining them, they are part of the investigation,” a spokesperson for the Amsterdam police told AFP. “We are trying to get a global picture” of what happened, he added.

The Jewish state denounces an “anti-Semitic pogrom”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced this Friday the violence suffered by Israeli supporters, calling it a “premeditated anti-Semitic attack.” During a telephone interview with his Dutch counterpart, Dick Schoof, Benjamin Netanyahu “declared that he viewed with seriousness the premeditated anti-Semitic attack against Israeli citizens and called for increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands.” indicates a press release from his office. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, for his part, considered that the images of the clashes were reminiscent of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel, and denounced an “anti-Semitic pogrom”. “We see with horror this morning the shocking images and videos that, since October 7, we had hoped never to see again: an ongoing anti-Semitic pogrom against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam,” he wrote on the social network

As a precaution, the Israeli army has banned all its personnel from traveling to the Netherlands. The Mossad was mobilized. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered the intelligence service to prepare an action plan to prevent violence at sporting events. “I have instructed the head of Mossad and other officials to prepare our action plans, our warning system and our organization in the face of this new situation,” he said in a broadcast statement. during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry to oversee the evacuation of Israelis from Amsterdam.

Clashes widely condemned

This Friday, the clashes provoked reactions of indignation around the world. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounced “unbearable” acts. “The reports of violence against Israeli supporters in Amsterdam are unbearable. We cannot accept this. Whoever attacks Jews attacks all of us,” he reacted on X. The German Minister of Foreign Affairs for his part described the images of the violence as “terrible and deeply shameful for us in Europe”. “Jews must be safe in Europe,” urged Annalena Baerbock, deploring “violence against Jews” which “crosses all borders”.

The UN and the EU have also expressed their outrage. “No one should be subjected to discrimination or violence on the basis of their national, religious, ethnic or other origin,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday. Man. For her part, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was “outraged” by these “vile attacks” and “unacceptable”. “Anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in Europe,” reacted the head of the European executive on X.

French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the violence which recalls “the most shameful hours in history”. “France will continue to fight relentlessly against odious anti-Semitism,” the head of state also assured. Asked by BFMTV about the France-Israel match, scheduled for next Thursday at the Stade de France, Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), said he was “worried” but in favor of maintaining it. “If we relocated this match, if we canceled it in France, but what symbol would it be? […] On the contrary, I believe that we must hold this match, put the necessary security resources on site” but also “in the streets of Paris”, he concluded.