A clearer picture is slowly emerging of the violence involving soccer fans in Amsterdam

A week after Israeli soccer fans were attacked in the streets of Amsterdam, triggering damning accusations of a “Jew hunt” in a city with an ugly history of antisemitism, a clearer picture of what happened that night is slowly emerging.

It suggests a far more nuanced take on events than Dutch authorities had initially indicated.

The violence occurred before, during and after a match on Nov. 7 between Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Amsterdam Ajax club. More than 2,800 Israeli fans had travelled to the city for the game.

At a news conference on Nov. 8 after a night of violence, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema placed the blame squarely on locals, saying that “hateful, antisemitic rioters and criminals attacked and beat up Jewish, Israeli visitors.”

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof denounced what he called “unacceptable antisemitic attacks.” King Willem-Alexander said his country failed Jews during the Second World War and had now “failed them again.” And Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the violence a “pogrom.”

Sixty-two people were initially arrested and five were hospitalized. Dutch police said five more people have been arrested since.

But a report released by the mayor’s office earlier this week, compiled with significant input from police investigators, indicates it was Israeli fans who initiated the first attacks, which then spiralled.

The 10-page document addressed to council members says the first serious incident occurred around midnight on Wednesday, the night before the soccer match. It says 50 Maccabi fans pulled down a Palestinian flag from a building in the city’s centre. Some of those fans moved on to Amsterdam’s red-light district and attacked a taxi. Other taxis were vandalized by other Israeli fans nearby.

The report indicates the taxi drivers then communicated with each other and mobilized as a group to confront about 400 Israelis, forcing police to keep the two groups apart.

‘Aggression’ from Maccabi fans, detractors before match

Exactly who took part in the confrontations with Israeli fans has not been precisely spelled out.

The report acknowledges social media posts that many of those involved were young people of Moroccan descent, although it stops short of stating their ethnicity as a fact.

The document says city officials met the next morning and determined that the “aggression shown by Maccabi supporters and the reaction of the taxi drivers” was so concerning that there was a discussion about cancelling the upcoming match.

On Thursday afternoon, after it was decided to continue with the game, the tension between the two groups intensified.

A large group of Israeli supporters set off fireworks in the city’s central Dam Square, and social media posts took on a “harsher” tone, with “antisemitic” terms appearing, the report says.

One widely shared video taken at some point after sunset shows a large group of Maccabi fans entering an Amsterdam metro station and shouting racist slogans, including “Let the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] win” and “F–k the Arabs.” The city report does not specifically mention the video or when it was taken.

Despite the worrisome buildup and tensions, over the next few hours, the Maccabi fans attended the game and then left the stadium with few incidents. But the trouble intensified afterward.

The report says after they left the stadium, some Maccabi supporters with sticks committed acts of vandalism in and around the city centre.

Other groups (the report does not say precisely who) then engaged in “violent hit and run actions” targeting Israelis, including using mopeds and motorcycles.

In response, police gathered Maccabi supporters together at several locations for their own protection, and buses were arranged to return them to their hotels.

Police ban demonstrations

By then, the report says, Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands was fully engaged with Dutch authorities, saying the events in Amsterdam were generating anger in Israel and that senior members of the government were planning on coming to the country.

Israeli officials say many Maccabi fans were so afraid, they locked themselves in their hotel rooms, although police said when they came to investigate, they found few individuals outside who were posing a threat.

By Friday afternoon, many of the Israeli fans who had initially come to the Netherlands had departed. Most of the rest were gone by Saturday morning.

Police say a ban on demonstrations, along with their increased presence, generally prevented further acts of violence over the weekend. However, several other apparent antisemitic incidents occurred that were cited in the report. In one case, a Dutch taxi driver demanded a customer tell him whether he was Israeli. Another man was reportedly thrown out of a taxi because he was Jewish.

Police made a total of 62 arrests before, during and after the soccer game. Of those, 49 people were either Dutch or lived in the Netherlands, and 10 were Israeli. While nearly all were released, three of the four who were held in custody for longer were teenagers, and one was 26.

In the aftermath of the violence, Dutch authorities cancelled the annual ceremony to commemorate Kristallnacht, the infamous night in November 1938 during which Nazi rioters in several German and central European cities ransacked Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses and terrorized Jewish residents.

During the Second World War, three-quarters of Dutch Jews were murdered.

Antisemitism just 1 factor in violence, report says

The report appears to qualify the mayor’s initial statement that only “antisemitic” rioters were responsible for the violence. “The events of the past days stem from a toxic combination of antisemitism, hooliganism and anger about the conflicts in Palestine and Israel,” it stated.

It also notes that “distressing” incidents occur regularly in the city, affecting “not only Jews but also increasingly Muslims, Palestinians and other minority groups.”

Jazie Veldhuyzen, an Amsterdam city councillor, said it’s clear in hindsight that Dutch officials and politicians deliberately overreacted to the soccer violence because it was useful to their respective political agendas.

“Basically everything that happened this week, including the riots, has been used by right-wing politicians — even our prime minister — to point the finger at migrants and blame them,” Veldhuyzen told CBC News in an interview.

His party, De Vonk, leans to the left, and he said that he personally supports Palestinian efforts to fight the 57-year Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Geert Wilders, the head of the far-right Party for Freedom, the largest party in the Dutch parliament, has been vocal about blaming the violence on ethnic Moroccans in the Netherlands, saying anyone found guilty should be deported.

In the aftermath of the soccer violence, Femke Halsema, Amsterdam’s mayor, survived a non-confidence vote initiated by right-wing parties.

“It wasn’t the case that people were specifically looking for Jews,” Veldhuyzen, the city councillor, said.

“People got attacked by Maccabi hooligans because they were mostly Arabs, and the counterattacks came as a result. But these [attacks] were directed at Maccabi fans specifically, and not at Jewish people from Amsterdam,” he said.

Dutch Jewish groups, however, dispute that interpretation of the city’s report.

Pro-Palestinian protests have continued

“I think what happened … was already planned far in advance,” said Naomi Mestrum, director of the Center for Information and Documentation Israel, a Dutch non-governmental organization that lobbies on behalf of Israel.

“We already had reports coming in from taxi drivers last May where they were saying they were going to hunt for Zionists, that they didn’t want any Jews in their taxis and stuff like that,” she told CBC News.

“It’s been building up since last year — ever since Oct. 7 we’ve seen a huge increase in antisemitic incidents.”

Mestrum said Israeli fans who misbehaved or were violent doesn’t change her belief that they were deliberately targeted.

“Now we see the excuses — like they were chanting songs … and they pulled Palestinian flags from houses. All those things happened and they were disgusting, but it’s not an excuse to go Jew hunting. It’s not an excuse to ask people who look Middle Eastern for their passport,” Mestrum said.

Since the events of a week ago, Dutch authorities have implemented a number of security measures to try to prevent a repeat of any violence and to lower tensions.

Those measures included a ban on demonstrations — which was lifted on Thursday — but all week, pro-Palestinian groups have come out into the streets anyway. On Wednesday night, more than 280 people were arrested.

Israeli officials have complained that there have been few arrests relating to violence directed at Maccabi fans over the last week.

Police say they are continuing to pore over security camera footage to try to identify those involved.

“We are preparing an independent investigation into the events of the past days, the preparations and actions of the authorities,” the city’s report said.