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A Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer match in Amsterdam against the Dutch team Ajax became a point of global controversy last November.
Maccabi Tel Aviv FC supporters were reportedly the target of violence in Amsterdam on Thursday before and during the soccer team’s match against Ajax. Dozens were arrested and five people received hospital treatment after a series of violent overnight incidents.
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Pro-Palestinians demonstrate at Amsterdam’s Anton de Komplein square ahead of the UEFA Europa League football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv on November 7, 2024. (JEROEN JUMELET/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Over the weekend, the public prosecution service announced it had dropped investigations into several Maccabi supporters because the city’s tram company, GVB, had deleted footage that could have been used as evidence. The company replaced recording equipment at two metro stations in Amsterdam after the attacks and footage from the night was lost.
Still, more than a dozen people have already been charged in connection with the violence and several have already been convicted.
Two inquiries into the events said in reports Monday that social media posts coupled with a lack of official information fueled the violence that followed the November match.
The Rotterdam-based Institute for Safety and Crisis Management, tasked by the Amsterdam government to investigate the response to the violence, said the lack of official communication from the city allowed rumors on social media to flourish.
It noted that there was little to no official communication during the early hours of Nov. 8, in part because the situation was so unclear.
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In a separate report, the inspectorate for the Justice Ministry concluded that the police were prepared for large-scale demonstrations, not the “flash attacks” perpetrated across the city and sparked by social media.
Both reports cautioned that even with improved communication, the authorities still could not have fully controlled the rapidly spreading violence.
“Calls and images spread rapidly, reinforce existing tensions and can lead to group formation and confrontations on the street within a short period of time,” the 57-page report found.
Both reports cautioned that even with improved communication, the authorities still could not have fully controlled the rapidly spreading violence.
The Justice Ministry’s report noted that “incidents, such as the removal of a Palestinian flag by Maccabi supporters, were shared, interpreted and magnified within minutes.”
Ahead of the game, pro-Palestinian demonstrators were banned by local authorities from gathering outside the stadium, and video showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans on their way to the game. Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them and then fleeing quickly to evade police, per the Associated Press.
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, previously gave an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital on the incident.
“We are seeing a pogrom against Jews and Israelis unfold in Amsterdam,” Danon said. “In 2024. This must stop. ‘Globalize the intifada’ was not just a slogan for these terrorist supporters. I urge the Dutch government to help all Israelis and Jewish people immediately. It’s time to respond with force against these barbaric rioters.”
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Supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv hold flags at Dam square ahead of the Europa League football match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam on November 7, 2024. (JEROEN JUMELET/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Danon also elaborated and posted a video on X
“We are receiving very disturbing reports of extreme violence against Israelis and Jews on the streets of Holland,” he wrote. “There is a pogrom currently taking place in Europe in 2024. These are the true faces of the supporters of the radical terrorism we are fighting. The western world needs to wake up now!!”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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