'Point of no return': 5 reactions to rioters hunting down, attacking Israelis in Amsterdam

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, November 09, 2024

Netherlands' Police officers patrol on Dam Square in Amsterdam, on Nov. 9, 2024. Extra security measures were taken in Amsterdam following violent clashes on Nov. 7, 2024, between fans of Ajax, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Turkish club Fenerbahce, who were playing another Dutch club, AZ Alkmaar. The city has a introduced a temporary ban on demonstrations throughout the capital this weekend and has also been designated a security risk area. | ROBIN UTRECHT/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

Rioters in the same city where Anne Frank hid during the Holocaust hunted down Israeli soccer fans, beating them and forcing them to say “Free Palestine” in an outbreak of violence that many have likened to Kristallnacht during the Nazi regime in Germany.

Footage shared online by the Israeli Embassy in the United States late Thursday night showed attackers harassing fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv after a soccer game in Amsterdam. The video includes footage of rioters beating Israelis and kicking them while they’re down on the ground.

As The Associated Press reported Friday, police arrested at least 62 suspects involved in attacks that officials in Israel and Amsterdam condemned as antisemitic. Five people were treated for their injuries at a local hospital and later released, and 20 to 30 others suffered minor injuries.

Some Israeli soccer fans said rioters had chased and harassed them for hours with little to no intervention from the police, according to the Times of Israel. One victim in particular was wearing a kippah when attackers badgered him about where he was from. According to the fans who were attacked, those who ambushed them appeared to be of Arab origin, and many wore masks or carried Palestinian flags.

Some rioters claimed that Israeli soccer fans had instigated the melee. Local authorities had prohibited anti-Israel demonstrators from assembling outside the stadium, and Israelis allegedly chanted anti-Arab slogans and had taken down Palestinian flags, according to AP.

For many, however, the violent attacks against Israeli citizens reminded them of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel and other antisemitic atrocities carried out against the Jewish people.

The following pages include reactions from political leaders, Holocaust and Oct. 7 survivors to the outbreak of antisemitic violence in Amsterdam.