The violence in Amsterdam last Thursday night was to a large part down to youngsters with “an immigration background” and tough action needs to be taken to deal with them, prime minister Dick Schoof told reporters on Monday afternoon.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Schoof said that “we have to get rid of anti-Semitism” through “better integration, better child-rearing and education”.

The attacks on several Jews by “youths on scooters” in the wake of the Ajax Maccabi Tel Aviv football match were “shocking and reprehensible,” Schoof said.

The Jewish community in the Netherlands must feel safe, he said. “We all have a responsibility… including the parents of these children,” he said. “The Netherlands has a broad integration problem.”

The problems caused by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are no excuse for “hunting down Jews” or for anti-Semitic violence, he said.  Arresting the perpetrators is the top priority, he said. “The police are working round the clock.”

Schoof did not go into any more details about what happened on Thursday night and said the number of youngsters with foreign roots who were involved had not yet been determined. In total 62 people were arrested on Thursday and one on Friday, and all but four have since been released.

Those four, aged 16, 17, 19 and 26, were remanded in custody for two weeks by a court on Monday. The two youngsters come from Amsterdam and are suspected of throwing fireworks at police and assaulting a man. The 26-year-old from Amsterdam said to have an assaulted an older man and the 19-year-old from Monnikendam threw stones at riot police.

Since Friday, police have not yet said anything about the background of those who were picked up or given any more details about the hit and run attacks on Jewish people in the city centre.

“All efforts are currently focused on arresting people involved in these hideous attacks on Jews,” Schoof said. Looking into the possibility that the attacks were driven from abroad is part of that investigation, Schoof said.

The prime minister was asked about a pledge in the right-wing coalition agreement to strip Dutch nationality from dual nationals who are found guilty of terrorism, and whether this could be extended to anti-Semitism. Schoof said this first needed to be debated in parliament before any steps in that direction could be taken.

Israeli warnings

Earlier in the day justice minister David van Weel confirmed that the Israeli secret service did not brief the Netherlands on any risks surrounding the match.

Israel has claimed that the Dutch security services were warned but Van Weel said security service and police records had been checked and no such warnings have been found.

“If I had found something, I would have said so,” he said. “We are still checking because I want to be sure we have not missed anything, but so far we have drawn a blank.”

Amsterdam city council will debate events in the capital on Tuesday and officials said earlier on Monday that they expected a first report on exactly what happened to be completed by then.