{"id":258,"date":"2024-11-11T07:30:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T07:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/violence-after-soccer-match-in-amsterdam-leads-to-more-than-60-arrests\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T07:30:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T07:30:12","slug":"violence-after-soccer-match-in-amsterdam-leads-to-more-than-60-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/violence-after-soccer-match-in-amsterdam-leads-to-more-than-60-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"Violence after soccer match in Amsterdam leads to more than 60 arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Four people were being held on Saturday in connection with violent clashes in Amsterdam<\/a> that broke out after a soccer match between Ajax, a local Dutch team, and Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The violence<\/a>, in which Maccabi fans were chased down and attacked, resulted in the arrest of 62 people by police and the declaration of a three-day ban on protests in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hit-and-run,\u201d said Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema. \u201cFootball fans were beaten and scared, after which the rioters quickly left again, fleeing the police force that was on the move en masse yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halsema denounced the violence and called it \u201can outburst of antisemitism.\u201d Amsterdam police spokesperson Sara Tillart told The Associated Press<\/a> that it was too early in the investigation to determine if anyone other than soccer fans were targeted.<\/p>\n

Marijke Stor, a Dutch police spokesperson, said no one has been charged yet<\/a>. \u201cIf people are released, it doesn\u2019t mean they are no longer a suspect,\u201d Stor said. \u201cOther arrests can still be made, of course, because the investigation is still ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amsterdam\u2019s acting police chief, Peter Holla, said in a Friday news conference that tensions had already been high before the soccer match, and hundreds of additional police officers were dispatched to Amsterdam. Holla said some Israeli fans fueled tensions by attacking a taxi on Wednesday and a Palestinian flag. There was also a confrontation before the game between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli fans, he added.<\/p>\n

One video geolocated by NBC News<\/a> showed fighting near Amsterdam\u2019s central station. NBC News also geolocated another video before or after the match that showed Israeli fans tearing down a Palestinian flag and singing \u201cDeath to the Arabs\u201d and \u201cLet the IDF win. We will f— the Arabs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Violence among fans of competing soccer clubs is not uncommon, but the incident on Thursday appeared to be related more to the conflict in the Middle East than the sport, as NBC News pointed out.<\/p>\n

The violence has led to condemnation by leaders in Europe, Israel and the United States. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared the incident to Kristallnacht, when Nazi mobs launched systematic attacks on Jewish communities across Germany in 1938.<\/p>\n

The Israeli government helped citizens arrange evacuations from Amsterdam via commercial flights.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday that it \u201ccondemns anti-Arab chants by Israelis and attacks on the symbolism of the Palestinian flag in Amsterdam.\u201d<\/p>\n

A United Nations spokesperson said<\/a> on Friday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was shocked by the violence and that he condemns all forms of antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry.<\/p>\n

Amsterdam is home to a large Jewish community, and the city is where Anne Frank and her family hid from Nazi occupiers during World War II.<\/p>\n

A report<\/a> from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) earlier this year found that Jewish people in Europe face \u201chigh levels of antisemitism.\u201d Muslims also face \u201cever more racism and discrimination\u201d in Europe, the agency found<\/a>. Both surveys were conducted prior to Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, but FRA Director Sirpa Rautio said the rise of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate are fueled by conflicts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Clarissa-Jan Lim<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking\/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four people were being held on Saturday in connection with violent clashes in Amsterdam that broke out after a soccer match between Ajax, a local Dutch team, and Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday. The violence, in which Maccabi fans were chased down and attacked, resulted in the arrest of 62 people by police and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}