POGROMS IN AMSTERDAM AFTER ISRAELI TEAM SOCCER GAME

Antisemitic riots erupted in Amsterdam, as islamists targeted Israeli soccer fans.

Ams­ter­dam wit­nessed shock­ing scenes of anti­se­mit­ic vio­lence on Novem­ber 7, as islamist riot­ers specif­i­cal­ly tar­get­ed Israeli fans of Mac­cabi Tel Aviv fol­low­ing their match against Ajax. Dutch author­i­ties report­ed that 62 peo­ple were arrest­ed after vio­lence broke out across the city, with five indi­vid­u­als hos­pi­tal­ized. This esca­la­tion unfold­ed as pro-Pales­tine demon­stra­tors attempt­ed to approach the sta­di­um, lead­ing to intense clash­es with police, who were forced to inter­vene repeat­ed­ly to pro­tect Israeli fans. 

Social media footage cap­tured the grim real­i­ty: Israeli fans were chased, beat­en, and forced to dis­play iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. These inci­dents eeri­ly coin­cid­ed with the anniver­sary of Kristall­nacht, the “Night of Bro­ken Glass” in 1938 when anti­se­mit­ic attacks swept through Nazi Ger­many. Dutch Prime Min­is­ter Dick Schoof denounced the vio­lence as “com­plete­ly unac­cept­able,” echo­ing the sen­ti­ments of Euro­pean lead­ers appalled by the out­bursts.

The hos­til­i­ty was not iso­lat­ed; skir­mish­es began hours before the game, with orga­nized groups arriv­ing to intim­i­date and pro­voke Mac­cabi sup­port­ers. Fol­low­ing the game, Dutch author­i­ties report­ed that many demon­stra­tors, some with Pales­tin­ian flags, attempt­ed to storm police bar­ri­cades near the are­na. Police described the evening as “very tur­bu­lent,” marked by fire­works and a hos­tile mob attempt­ing to locate Israeli fans. Despite a sub­stan­tial police pres­ence, attacks on Mac­cabi sup­port­ers were scat­tered across Ams­ter­dam, lead­ing police to escort fans to hotels and pub­lic trans­port for safe­ty.

Israeli lead­ers expressed hor­ror and demand­ed account­abil­i­ty, call­ing the events a mod­ern-day pogrom against Jew­ish cit­i­zens in the heart of Europe. Pres­i­dent Isaac Her­zog not­ed that images from the riots evoked mem­o­ries of Octo­ber 7, while Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Pres­i­dent Ursu­la von der Leyen declared, “Anti­semitism has no place in Europe. We will fight all forms of hatred.”

Fol­low­ing an ear­li­er sug­ges­tion by Israeli author­i­ties to send res­cue flights, Mac­cabi Tel Aviv fans are now being flown home on com­mer­cial planes with increased secu­ri­ty. For many, the events served as a grim reminder of how deeply anti­semitism con­tin­ues to per­sist and how crit­i­cal it is for Europe and the world to denounce hate-dri­ven vio­lence.