Netanyahu cries 'anti-Semitism' as Israeli Maccabi hooligans instigate riots in Amsterdam

As anti-Palestinian provocations by notoriously racist Israeli football hooligans triggered riots in central Amsterdam on Thursday night, Israel and the far-right government of the Netherlands, along with other Western leaders, are rushing to portray the violence as 'anti-Semitic pogroms', even as the Dutch police said investigations are ongoing and refused to comment on the ethnicity of the Dutch citizens arrested overnight.

No Israelis were arrested, but were instead given close police protection and escorted to their accommodations.

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu quickly condemned the clashes as 'anti-Semitic' in a call with the Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof but the sequence of events suggest a different reality.

Chanting anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab slogans, fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv gathered in central Amsterdam as their club played local giants Ajax, with eyewitnesses saying gangs of Israeli thugs first instigated violence Wednesday night by ripping down a Palestinian flag from a house in Amsterdam city centre, an act which has been caught on several online videos, although The New Arab could not immediately verify the footage.

The videos show dozens of hooded figures dressed fully in black chanting “Fuck you Palestine” and cheering “ole” as one of them climbed up the front of a building and ripped down a Palestinian flag on the Rokin, a street in central Amsterdam. 

Several other residences flying Palestinian flags were said to have been targeted by the thugs.

Footage also shows one Israeli thug attacking a taxi reportedly belonging to an ethnic Arab resident with crowbar, which prompted other Dutch Arab cab drivers to attack the hooligans, which was broken up by the police.

Maccabi hooligans were also reported to have begun attacking Arab residents in the Dutch capital earlier, as well as chanting obscene racist slogans against Palestinians and Arabs.

As reported by the Clash Report, the Maccabi fans, who were protected by police, “chanted anti-Arab slurs and a genocidal song in Amsterdam”, including lines such as “there are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left”, “Let the IDF win to fuck the Arabs” and “Fuck you Palestine”.

The tensions had been simmering days in advance, with Dutch authorities banning pro-Palestine protests against hosting the club in the city, in anticipation of clashes with the visiting Israeli fans. Amsterdam is considered the 'Arab capital' of the Netherlands, with over 77,000 residents being of Moroccan descent.

Before the game, pro-Palestine protesters did convene at both the Johan Cruyff Arena, where the match was played and where riot police were called in to disperse pro-Palestine protesters from marching on the stadium. However, most of the violence between the Maccabi hooligans and Amsterdam residents occurred before and after the game in the city centre.

Israeli football hooligans spark riots in Amsterdam

After the game, and with word spreading of earlier Israeli violence against Arab residents, young Arab residents of Amsterdam took to the streets to confront the Israeli fans, prompting running street clashes with the Maccabi hooligans, as well as reports of members of a Moroccan Dutch Ajax ultras group chasing the Israelis through the city after the game using 'hit-and-run' tactics according to the Dutch police.

Israeli reports subsequently claimed the violence was organised and pre-planned.

At least 10 of the Israeli hooligans were injured, including some either being thrown into or jumping into Amsterdam’s famous canals. Other videos show Israeli hooligans taunting Arab residents, only to be chased and then knocked out.

Police said 62 people were arrested and five people hospitalised after the outbreak of violence by the Maccabi hooligans, without providing further details.

The Israeli government said it would send planes to fly its citizens home but later said it would pursue 'civilian solutions'.

Eyewitnesses and video shows many of the fans masked, prompting speculation that Israeli agent provocateurs were among the thugs in an attempt to provoke violence.

This comes amid a report in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Tuesday that Mossad agents would be accompanying the Maccabi fans to Amsterdam out  of“safety concerns”.

The Israeli government and pro-Israel officials were quick to frame the violence instigated by the Maccabi hooligans to claim that it was an anti-Israel or “antisemitic” attack by Arab Dutch residents.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof denounced the "completely unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis".

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the clashes in Amsterdam after the Europa League football match, saying the "shocking images" of violence were reminiscent of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year. 

British academic and renowned anti-Islam figure Niall Ferguson took to social media site X to proclaim the violence as “shocking and disgraceful scenes of antisemitic violence”, while US pro-Israel writer Bari Weiss referred to it as a "pogrom".

The pro-Israel “Combat Antisemitism Movement” referred to the events as “a new Kristallnacht”, in reference to the outburst of anti-Jewish violence in Nazi Germany on 9 November, 1938.

The leaders of France, and Germany as well as the U.S. anti-Semitism tsar all rushed to portray the incidents as motivated by anti-Semitism.

But Amsterdam councilman Jazie Veldhuyzen, speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, confirmed that it was the Israeli fans who began the violence.

“They began attacking houses of people in Amsterdam with Palestinian flags, so that’s actually where the violence started,” Veldhuyzen said.

“As a reaction, Amsterdammers mobilised themselves and countered the attacks that started on Wednesday by the Maccabi hooligans.”

Dutch authorities said on Friday that the capital is now calm, and the Amsterdam police said they would track down any more citizen involved in the violence.