The attacks by local Muslims and Arabs occurred after a match between Maccabi and Ajax on Thursday night. According to The Times of Israel, the gangs hunted down and attacked Jews while chanting “Free Palestine.”
In response, Israel sent planes to evacuate Israelis in Amsterdam, per Fox News.
Videos on social media showed fans being ambushed, beaten, chased with knives and bats, thrown into a nearby river and chased down and hit with vehicles. Some of their passports were stolen and published online, women were beaten and even families with children were attacked. Some of the Arab attackers broke into hotels and threw incendiary devices through windows.
Dutch riot police were sent in to respond.
One Israeli told Kan News. “They were waiting in groups at every corner and the moment they identified Jews they chased them,” noting the lack of protection from local authorities. Others called it a pogrom and compared it to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
Another Israeli told Channel 12 News, “It was Kristallnacht 2. We’re not safe here, we’re shut inside our hotel.”
Yet another told Ynet, “Dozens attacked us. It looked planned.”
Israel’s National Security Council instructed Israelis in the country to shelter in place and not display Jewish or Israeli symbols.
A statement from the Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s office called on the Netherlands and local security forces “to act decisively and swiftly against the rioters, and to ensure the wellbeing of our citizens.” He also asked for increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
The riots calmed down as morning broke and Amsterdam police said that 62 people total were arrested.
Israel said that it held Dutch authorities responsible for the safety of its citizens and dispatched IDF cargo planes to conduct a rescue mission.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon called the violence “a pogrom,” adding, “These are the true faces of the supporters of the radical terrorism we are fighting. The Western world needs to wake up now!!” he wrote in a post on X.
Dutch leader Geert Wilders suggested the attackers were migrants and wrote on social media, “Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam….Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands.” He also called the attack a “pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam” adding that the Netherlands had become the “Gaza of Europe.”
He later called on the mayor of Amsterdam to resign "today."
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt said, “Horrified by the attacks tonight in Amsterdam, which are terribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom. I am also deeply disturbed by how long the reported attacks lasted and call on the government to conduct a thorough investigation into security force intervention and on how these despicable attacks transpired.” She added, “In a terrible historical irony, this is happening two days before the grim anniversary of Reichspogromnacht in 1938, when Nazi-sanctioned and led pogroms against Jews erupted across the German Reich,” referring to Kristallnacht.
Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek said that the attacks were "a direct result of our open border policies and are a prime example of the huge issues we’ve been facing specifically with the muslim and Moroccan community."
