A “pogrom” of Israeli football supporters that came as the Netherlands commemorates the anniversary of Kristallnacht saw police overwhelmed by motorcycle gangs hunting Jewish people, leaving officers investigating whether anyone was kidnapped during the riot.
The mayor of Amsterdam, ‘GreenLeft’ party grandee Femke Halsema faced calls to resign for presiding over the first pogrom in Western Europe since the Second World War on Friday after gangs roamed the streets of the city looking for Israelis to attack.
The violence, called a “riot” which recalls the “pogroms” of the last century by Dutch politicians including Mayor Halsema and power behind the new government coalition Geert Wilders came after Israeli football supporters flew into the city to support their home team Maccabi Tel Aviv as it played a match against locals Ajax.
Wilders has called the violence the work of “Islamic radicals” and called for the mayor to resign, and for the perpetrators to be deported.
In a press conference held to address the violence attended by mayor Halsema, the chief of police, and the public prosecutor discussed the possibility that taxi drivers were involved in the violence. The police said they are investigating the attacks as possibly coordinated and pre-planned, yet who may have been behind it was not up for discussion.
When asked whether claims those responsible were predominantly “Moroccan-Dutch people”, Halsema deflected, answering pointedly: “what the ethnicity or the nationality of these people is I can’t say something specific about, and I don’t want to”.
One persistent question over the events of Thursday night is the reality of claims that hostages may have been taken amid the chaos. Police spokesman Commissioner Peter Holla did not have a straight answer, stating while they had no definite answers, they were nevertheless investigating.
He said: “we’ve received a lot of questions about missing Maccabi supporters… we have no information there are abductions or missing people, but we will take these messages very seriously and look into it. Several supporters who were missing have now been in touch with their families… some missing people have been reported to us and on the basis of that we are looking into it”.
Mayor Halsema said of the “pogrom” itself: “Boys on scooters were driving through the town looking for supporters, it was hit and run, football fans were attacked and then the rioters took off again, running away from the police forces… the hit and run scooter attacks that were driving through the city, which were already gone as soon as they committed their crimes”.
She said: “the war in the middle east has threatened the peace in our city, there was a terrible antisemitic outburst in our city, and I hope to never see this again”.
It was revealed five people were treated for injuries in hospital and 30 others received light injuries. There were 62 arrests of whom ten were still in custody on Friday morning for more serious crimes, although what they were was not exactly stated, other than “public violence” and possible antisemitism charges. The remainder had already been fined for crimes including letting off fireworks in the city and carrying knives.
A key question now is how much the authorities knew in advance, and whether they did enough to prevent the attacks. Both football teams were judged to be at low risk from football hooliganism, and the match was friendly, but non-football violence from the other residents of now increasingly multicultural Amsterdam was evidently another matter. The city had spoken to the taxi driver union and UBER in advance to warn them to brief their drivers not to cause “confrontation” with Israeli visitors, although this appears not to have totally worked.
That taxi drivers — in Amsterdam as in so many European cities, a profession that has become increasingly dominated by migrant workers — were in some way involved is something asserted by Israeli victims and the local Jewish community, with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf stating Israelis attempting to flee the Netherlands on Friday refused to call taxi cabs to take them to the airport, and relied on volunteer drivers from the local community instead.
One volunteer told the newspaper: “Nobody dares to order a taxi or Uber after what happened. We have come to the rescue to get everyone here and on the flight to Israel as quickly as possible”. An Israeli visitor cited by the paper stated: “It really felt like war. We had a great night in the stadium… But what happened after that I can’t even describe. This really feels like hate.”
Counter-terror police were consulted in advance and the city authorities were aware in advance that the match would coincide with the planned commemorations of Kristallnacht, and deployed large numbers of police. Halsema said: “it was recommended to take measures… and we tried to do that. We had extra police available in several areas of Amsterdam”.
Nevertheless the officers were totally overwhelmed by the highly mobile motorcycle-mounted gangs. Mayor Halsema appeared to hand-wave away the issues to some extent, saying the police deployment had been sufficient, that it was to be expected “in an international city, you have international tensions” and despite being asked by several journalists whether she would resign, she said there was nothing to resign over.
Other critics have called on Halsema to resign, including leading Duthc politician Geert Wilders, who wrote “The mayor of Amsterdam must resign today” and said those responsible for the attacks should be expelled from the country. He and others have stated the violence was the result of “Islamic radicals”.
While Israel sent aircraft to Amsterdam to evacuate its citizens and most are now returning home, the city has nevertheless been placed under emergency measures to combat any further violence. Halsema said in her update that the law allowed police extra stop and search powers, demonstrations had been banned, face coverings had been banned, and extra police and the military were deployed to keep the peace.