A clearer picture is slowly emerging of the violence involving soccer fans in Amsterdam
CBC
A week after Israeli soccer fans were attacked in the streets of Amsterdam, triggering damning accusations of a "Jew hunt" in a city with an ugly history of antisemitism, a clearer picture of what happened that night is slowly emerging.
It suggests a far more nuanced take on events than Dutch authorities had initially indicated.
The violence occurred before, during and after a match on Nov. 7 between Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Amsterdam Ajax club. More than 2,800 Israeli fans had travelled to the city for the game.
At a news conference on Nov. 8 after a night of violence, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema placed the blame squarely on locals, saying that "hateful, antisemitic rioters and criminals attacked and beat up Jewish, Israeli visitors."
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof denounced what he called "unacceptable antisemitic attacks." King Willem-Alexander said his country failed Jews during the Second World War and had now "failed them again." And Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the violence a "pogrom."
Sixty-two people were initially arrested and five were hospitalized. Dutch police said five more people have been arrested since.
But a report released by the mayor's office earlier this week, compiled with significant input from police investigators, indicates it was Israeli fans who initiated the first attacks, which then spiralled.
The 10-page document addressed to council members says the first serious incident occurred around midnight on Wednesday, the night before the soccer match. It says 50 Maccabi fans pulled down a Palestinian flag from a building in the city's centre. Some of those fans moved on to Amsterdam's red-light district and attacked a taxi. Other taxis were vandalized by other Israeli fans nearby.
The report indicates the taxi drivers then communicated with each other and mobilized as a group to confront about 400 Israelis, forcing police to keep the two groups apart.
Exactly who took part in the confrontations with Israeli fans has not been precisely spelled out.
The report acknowledges social media posts that many of those involved were young people of Moroccan descent, although it stops short of stating their ethnicity as a fact.
The document says city officials met the next morning and determined that the "aggression shown by Maccabi supporters and the reaction of the taxi drivers" was so concerning that there was a discussion about cancelling the upcoming match.
On Thursday afternoon, after it was decided to continue with the game, the tension between the two groups intensified.
A large group of Israeli supporters set off fireworks in the city's central Dam Square, and social media posts took on a "harsher" tone, with "antisemitic" terms appearing, the report says.
