The Islamist “Jew hunt” following a soccer match in Amsterdam last week was premeditated and organised on messaging apps before the game, a report has found.
Undermining claims from pro-Palestinian apologists that the attacks which left 25 people injured in Amsterdam were inspired by anti-Arab chants from Israeli fans at the Ajax—Maccabi Tel Aviv match on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the attacks were planned ahead of the match.
Screencaps from a local WhatsApp message group obtained by the paper showed members sharing Palestinian flags and messages apparently calling for violence against the Israeli fans who travelled to the city for the match. A member of the messaging group, dubbed the “Community Center”, called for a “PART 2 JEW HUNT” to be waged following the Ajax-Maccabi game.
Another message, posted in Arabic, thanked another member for updating the group on the whereabouts of Israelis in the city and, in Dutch, added, “Bro, your tip was worth gold.”
According to Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, the Telegram messaging app was also used to discuss “going on Jew hunts”.
“This is so shocking and despicable that I cannot get over it yet. It is a disgrace,” she said.
The attacks, which have been described as “pogroms”, saw large groups of young men riding through the city on scooters attacking people they suspected of being Israelis and using the scooters to quickly flee in “hit and run” fashion. Reports have also indicated that taxi drivers in the city were instrumental in notifying attackers of the locations to target.
Speaking to the WSJ, 30-year-old Maccabi supporter Shachar Bitton said: “They knew everything… They knew exactly where we stayed. They knew exactly which hotels, which street we were going to take. It was all well-organized, well-prepared.”
Confirming the organised targeting of Israeli fans, the Holland Casino in Amsterdam said that on Wednesday, one of its security guards had sent messages to a group chat to alert others that there was a large presence of Jews at the casino. Briton, who was at the casino, said that he saw two of his friends with bloodied faces.
He said that around 200 people had gathered outside the building, many of whom were speaking Arabic. The Holland Casino said that it has banned the security guard and does not tolerate antisemitism or violence from its staff.
The report runs contrary to a narrative that the violence following the match on Thursday was a spontaneous reaction to “racist” chants from Israeli fans praising the Jewish state’s war against Hamas terrorists in Palestine, with videos circulating online apparently showing Maccabi supporters tearing down Palestinian flags in the city and chanting, “Let the IDF win. Fuck the Arabs!” and “Fuck you Palestine.”
Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders, the main power broker behind the Dutch government, attributed the attacks to decades of mass migration open borders policies in The Netherlands from Islamic countries.
“All those parties that governed for years and left our borders wide open should be ashamed of themselves. They are now shedding crocodile tears but are entirely responsible for the import and growth of all that disgusting Jew-hatred,” Wilders wrote on Sunday.
The populist leader, who has been under round-the-clock protection for over two decades over Islamist threats on his life, has vowed to push for all “Muslim criminals” involved in last Thursday’s attacks on Israeli supporters to be deported from the country.
