Amsterdam council to hold emergency debate on Thursday’s attacks

Maccabi fans on their way to the match. Photo: Michel van Bergen

Amsterdam city council is on Tuesday holding an emergency debate into last Thursday’s violence surrounding the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv Europa League match.

Officials say they expect to have a complete overview of what happened by Tuesday morning at the latest and will present the findings to the council at the meeting, which begins at midday.

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema said on Friday that “youngsters on mopeds” had been criss-crossing the city and carrying out “hit and run” attacks on Israeli Jewish “guests in our city”. 

Five people were hospitalised during the trouble, and 20 to 30 were treated for minor injuries.

Since then, however, more has emerged about the behaviour of Maccabi fans both before and after the match.

Footage has been circulating showing Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters close to the city’s main railway station pulling iron pipes from scaffolding to use as weapons after the game. The group can be seen setting fireworks and chanting anti-Palestine slogans while walking and occasionally running through the streets.

They were also filmed throwing stones and pieces of wood at the police.

The police said on Sunday that all the footage taken on Thursday night would be part of their investigation.

In total 62 people were arrested on Thursday night and one person was picked up on Friday on the basis of video footage. Police have not said if any of them were Israeli.

Four people remain in custody and police say they expect to make more arrests.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar, who was in the Netherlands for a flying visit in the wake of the trouble, has said that the Israeli police will be helping track down witnesses and evidence about the attacks on Israelis.

Both the national and local Dutch authorities have accepted the offer, he said.

Israel will be closely monitoring developments so that “justice is done and these barbaric criminals are punished”, he said. Israel’s “friends in high places and government would not give up,” he said, in an apparent reference to far-right leader Geert Wilders, whom he met during his short visit.

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