Amsterdam in shock after Thursday night's violence

Photo: Sem van der Wal ANP via Agence France-Presse Police officers secure the area near Dam Square in Amsterdam, November 9, 2024.

Stéphanie Hamel – Agence France-Presse

Published at 14:56

• Europe

Two days after violence on the sidelines of the soccer match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv sparked international condemnation, the Dutch capital and its Jewish residents were still in shock.

In the Jodenbuurt, Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter, police officers stand guard near the Portuguese synagogue and the Jewish Historical Museum.

While the community is keeping a low profile on Saturday, a Jewish man from Amsterdam, running a T-shirt stand at the neighborhood market, told AFP that he has been feeling very bad since Thursday night’s violence.

“I feel the shame that every Amsterdammer must feel, because once again, as if history were repeating itself, Jews are being attacked simply because they are Jews,” laments the 58-year-old man who preferred to remain anonymous for his own safety.

Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were violently attacked by groups of individuals in the streets of the city on the night of Thursday to Friday after the Europa League match, in a context marked by the rise in anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli acts in the world since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023.

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The police reported five people briefly hospitalized and 63 arrests, and Israel organized emergency flights to repatriate its citizens.

“I am totally opposed to what Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip and I think it is horrible and it goes too far. But what happened in Amsterdam went too far,” said Edit Tuboly, a 61-year-old woman interviewed in the aisles of the market, her arms full of bags.

On Wednesday evening, the day before the Europa League match, incidents had taken place in some neighborhoods, with Maccabi fans tearing down a Palestinian flag from a facade in the city center and burning another flag on Dam Square.

The Dutch government and city hall strongly condemned the attacks, calling them anti-Semitic. Many foreign leaders, including the American Joe Biden, have also denounced them.

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Amsterdam, “safe place”

Originally from Israel and living in Amsterdam for 34 years, the market trader himself attended the match, which ended in a 5-0 victory for Ajax, with a friend.

“Even if there is room for criticism of the Israeli side in this conflict [in Gaza], this is of course not the way to express it by attacking innocent people just because they come from somewhere,” he laments.

According to the trader, the atmosphere at the match was “fantastic” between the two groups of supporters. However, he said he knows a friend who was attacked along with his 17-year-old son after the game.

The Dutch capital, nicknamed “Mokum” or “safe place” in Yiddish, has historically been considered a refuge for the Jewish community. With the exception of the period of World War II, the figure of Anne Frank remains a symbol of the deportation of Jewish people.

“Until now, we thought that Amsterdam and the Netherlands were spared from this extreme violence against Jews,” said the shopkeeper, visibly moved.

Commemorations cancelled

“Amsterdam should be ashamed of the pogrom that took place on the night of the Kristallnacht commemoration,” the collective of Dutch Jewish organizations Centraal Joods Overleg said in a statement released Friday.

Joana Cavaco, 28, chairwoman of the anti-Zionist Jewish collective Erev Rav, founded two years ago in the Netherlands, said it was “worrying to see that people talk about the safety of Jews without seeing what is happening on the ground.” “.

According to Ms. Cavaco, the Maccabi supporters felt they had “carte blanche” and began provocations as soon as they arrived.

“We don't feel safe because Israel dictates how the world sees us,” she told AFP.

A Kristallnacht commemoration event in Amsterdam that Erev Rav was due to attend was cancelled, and Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema on Friday banned all demonstrations for three days.

Schoof cancels COP29 trip

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced on Saturday that he had cancelled his trip to the COP29 climate conference in Baku, which begins next week, due to violence against Israeli citizens in Amsterdam on Thursday night.

“I will not be going to Azerbaijan next week for the UN Climate Conference COP29,” Schoof announced on X. “I am staying in the Netherlands because of the major social impact of the events of last Thursday night in Amsterdam,” he explained.

Like many leaders of the international community, Schoof called the “anti-Semitic attacks” “unacceptable.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned “the anti-Arab chants by Israelis and the attack on the Palestinian flag in Amsterdam.”

Mr. Schoof has been criticised for not immediately leaving a European summit in Budapest to return to the Netherlands when violence broke out on Thursday night.

“On Monday, at the cabinet meeting, we will discuss the events in Amsterdam,” the Dutch prime minister said.

“In addition, I will be meeting on Tuesday with various Jewish and social organizations on the fight against anti-Semitism and the unrest and concerns that exist,” he added.

The COP will bring together 198 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan, starting on November 11 and lasting until at least November 22.

The Dutch government will be represented by Climate Minister Sophie Hermans.

Agence France-Presse