Israeli soccer fan describes attack in Amsterdam

An Israeli soccer fan has described being attacked overnight by several men, who Amsterdam police said were teenagers who had committed hit-and-runs on scooters that were difficult to prevent.

Adi Reuben, a 24-year-old Maccabi Tel Aviv fan who was visiting Amsterdam for the club’s Europa League match against Ajax, told the BBC he was kicked to the ground by a group of young men who confronted him as he went to his club hotel.

He said more than 10 men approached him and his friends and asked them where they were from.

“They were shouting ‘Jewish, Jewish, IDF, IDF,'” Mr. Reuben said, referring to the Israeli military.

“They started messing with me and I realized I had to run away, but it was dark and I didn’t know where to go. I fell to the ground and ten people kicked me. They shouted ‘Palestine’.”

“They kicked me on the ground for about a minute then they walked away, they weren’t afraid of anything.”

“I realized I was covered in blood My face and nose were broken and it hurts a lot.

Mr Reuben said he could not see properly for about 30 minutes after the attack but decided against going to hospital in Amsterdam because he had heard that taxi drivers were involved in the violence.

Instead, he said he was flying to Israel on Friday afternoon on a flight organized by the Israeli government and would receive medical treatment there.

“This was a specific attack that was organized in advance,” he added.

Some Israeli soccer fans said they were asked to show their passports when they were attacked.

Gal Binyanmin Tshuva, 29, told the BBC he was attacked outside a casino in the city on Wednesday after watching another football match.

“We were faced with about 20 people running towards us. They asked me where I was from and I said I was from Greece. They said they didn’t believe me and wanted to see my passport.”

“I said I didn’t have my passport and then they hit me, pushed me to the ground and started kicking me in the face.

“I don’t remember anything after that and I woke up in an ambulance with blood on my face and realized they had broken two of my teeth.”

Pnina, another Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter, also told Dutch media organization NOS that the violence against Israelis appeared to be planned in advance.

“It seems like it was organized. There were a lot of people there. They jumped on us… We hid in the hotels until it was safe to go outside,” she said.

Esther Voet, editor-in-chief of a Dutch Jewish weekly, lives in the city center and says she offered her house to accommodate several Israeli fans after seeing footage of the violence.

“I told them that this is a Jewish home and you are safe here,” she told Israeli public broadcaster Kann. “People were really scared. I never thought I would go through something like this in Amsterdam.”

Dutch police said Israeli fans suffered “serious abuse” in hit-and-run attacks, many of which were carried out by young men on scooters.

Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said it had proven difficult to prevent such attacks, despite police presence in large numbers in the city center. The force ultimately decided to round up and protect Maccabi supporters before transporting them out of the area on buses, he said.

Five people were injured but were able to leave the hospital, and between 20 and 30 others suffered minor injuries, he said.

The attacks overnight Friday followed some tension between Maccabi fans and the people of Amsterdam in recent days, officials said.

On Wednesday, Maccabi fans attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag, police chief Holla said. Taxi drivers then drove to a location where around 400 Maccabi fans had gathered, but police were able to escort them out of the area. There were further clashes on Dam Square on Thursday night, but police were able to largely separate the groups.

On the Thursday evening before the game, police escorted pro-Palestinian protesters and largely managed to keep them away from football fans – but were then unable to prevent attacks later in the evening.

“We look back on 36 hours that really shocked me. Supporters from Israel were horribly attacked and sometimes mistreated,” said Holla.

“I am particularly shocked that we had one of the largest police operations and failed to control or prevent this violence.”

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said the “war in the Middle East has threatened peace in our city” and there has been a “terrible outbreak of anti-Semitism.”

She said Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were not seen as a threat of violence and there was no animosity between them and fans of Dutch club Ajax.

“I understand that this reminds us of pogroms and that what happened in Amsterdam is reprehensible. Not only were people injured last night, our city’s history was deeply damaged, Jewish culture was threatened,” she said.

Some Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have previously been involved in racist incidents in Israel, including insulting the team’s Palestinian and Arab players and reportedly putting pressure on the team to expel them.

Fans of the team have also previously attacked protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Asked about video footage apparently showing Maccabi fans in Amsterdam chanting offensive slogans, Mayor Halsema said: “What happened last night has nothing to do with protest. There is no excuse for what happened.”

Additional reporting Shaina Oppenheimer in Jerusalem