As incidents of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic abuse rise across Europe, a soccer match between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam sparked violence and a firestorm of controversy in the Dutch capital.
Investigators are still looking into exactly what happened before and after the game, but officials said it included «rioters who actively sought out Israeli fans to assault and attack them,» as well as rioting and violent acts by some Israeli fans.
Officials issued an emergency decree banning all protests in the city until Thursday, stepped up security at Jewish sites and banned the use of some face coverings.
This is what we know about how events unfolded.
Wednesday, Nov. 6
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have started arriving for Europa League matches, Europe’s second biggest club football competition after the Champions League. (Israeli clubs have played in UEFA competitions since 1992.)
Amsterdam’s municipal safety committee said the match was not high-risk «from a footballing point of view» and that there was «no animosity» between the two sets of fans, according to an official report released on Tuesday. The committee said it consulted the police, teams, football hooliganism authorities and UEFA before making the assessment.
Ajax, the most successful Dutch team, has historically attracted supporters from Amsterdam’s Jewish community, and fans sometimes carry Star of David flags to matches. The club also has many Muslim fans.
While the evening passed relatively peacefully, police monitored aggressive messages on social media and messaging apps threatening Maccabi fans, according to a report by a group of officials known as the Triangle – Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema; René de Beukelaer, Chief City Prosecutor; and Police Chief Peter Holla.
They saw «a readiness to act and in a few cases to mobilize at a specific location,» the report added.
At around 11:00 p.m. local time (5:00 a.m. CET), four people were arrested after they painted pro-Palestinian graffiti at the Johan Cruyff Arena, where Thursday’s match was scheduled to take place, the report said.
About 1,200 police officers were deployed in the city.
Thursday, Nov. 7
Early Thursday, a video posted on X and geolocated by NBC News on Rokin, a main street in downtown Amsterdam, showed a crowd cheering as a man standing on a building’s canopy tore down a Palestinian flag.
Some in the crowd chanted «Ole» and «f— you Palestine.»
A police car then slowly drove by, and the fans moved out of the way. It is unclear whether the authorities took any further action.
An official report on the incident said the group then split up, with some heading towards the city’s famous red-light district, shouting slogans. Some in the crowd were reportedly wearing masks.
Some were «taking off their belts» and attacked the taxi. Other taxis were «vandalized» nearby.
After online calls for «taxi drivers to mobilize» went out, some drivers headed to the Holland Casino, where 400 Israeli fans were reportedly present. The police took the fans away in buses.
According to the report, «relatively small» clashes continued to break out around the casino.
Later, the Triangle discussed canceling the match, but found it «untenable» due to the large number of fans already in town.
At 1 p.m. local time, a large number of Maccabi fans gathered in the city’s central Dam Square, where «police were on standby,» according to the report.
Video shared on social media and geolocated by NBC News shows Maccabi fans chanting anti-Arab slogans in front of the national monument in the square.
Maccabi fans could later be seen chanting «Death to the Arabs» and «Long live the IDF». We’re going to fuck the Arabs,» as well as tearing up another Palestinian flag.
Pro-Palestinian groups initially planned to protest outside the Johan Cruyff Arena during the match, but Mayor Halsema said at a press conference on Friday that she had moved the demonstration to a remote location.
Amsterdam, like many cities around the world, has been the scene of large-scale protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 people in the blockaded enclave, according to health officials. Israel’s invasion of Gaza followed the terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7, in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 hostages were taken by Palestinian militants.
Shortly before kick-off at 9pm local time (3pm CET), several videos posted on social media showed Maccabi fans jeering, whistling and lighting torches during a minute’s silence for victims of Spain’s deadly floods. The sign on the stadium read «In memory of the victims of the floods in Valencia.»
This led to a lot of criticism on social media, although several Israeli fans interviewed after the match said they did not hear the call for silence.
The match ended around 11pm local time (5pm EST). And after watching their team thrashed 5-0, many Maccabi fans returned to their hotels and downtown.
Friday, Nov. 8
Within an hour of the match ending, security collapsed.
The trouble was expected in part because of messages on social media «confirming that there are groups looking for a clash with Maccabi fans,» according to Tuesday’s report. Officials cited screenshots from messaging apps that called for «Jew hunting.»
Maccabi fans in the area were repeatedly attacked by pro-Palestinian «rioters who were captured and escaped,» according to the report. The police struggled to quell the violence, and some fans were seriously injured.
The report said that unlike traditional hooliganism, in which people associated with rival clubs fight each other, police work was made more difficult because rioters moved in «small groups, on foot, in scooters or cars to attack Maccabi fans. briefly and then disappear again.”
Video, verified by NBC News, showed a man hiding on the ground. «I’ll give you my money,» he said. His attacker shouted: “This is for children! For the children, mother—-r. Free Palestine now.”
Other videos showed people being kicked and beaten in the street. It was not immediately clear who the attackers or victims were.
Meanwhile, around midnight, a larger group of Maccabi fans were spotted in the Dam Square area.
«Some walk around with sticks in their hands and commit vandalism,» the report says.
A video recorded early Friday by Bender, a popular YouTube channel, shows a group of men, some wearing Maccabi fan colors, picking up pipes and boards from a construction site before chasing and beating the man.
Around 2:45 a.m., the Israeli ambassador contacted Mayor Halsema and said there was «a lot of anger» in Israel over the events in Amsterdam.
Videos posted on social media and verified by NBC News showed some Maccabi fans returning home to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport chanting, «Why is school out in Gaza? There are no more children there.”
The violence sparked international condemnation.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said he was «appalled by the anti-Semitic attacks».
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared the incident to Kristallnacht, or the «Night of Broken Glass,» on November 9, 1938, when Nazi Germany unleashed violent riots aimed at expelling the Jewish community and vandalizing their homes, synagogues and businesses.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the US special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, said the violence was «horribly reminiscent of a classic pogrom».
In a post on X, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the images coming out of Amsterdam «horrific and very shameful for us in Europe.»
UEFA, which organizes the Europa League, condemned the violence and said it trusted the authorities to «identify and charge as many as possible those responsible for such acts».
A total of 62 people were arrested on suspicion of violent acts in public, vandalism and disturbing public order, according to the official report. Forty-nine of them were Dutch and 10 Israeli, and the nationality of three is unknown, the Triangle report says, adding that 45 were fined and four remained in prison. Two minors were «suspected of aggravated assault».
Sunday, Nov. 10
After 24 hours of relative peace, police detained 50 people at a pro-Palestinian rally for defying a ban on protests in Amsterdam. Another 340 people were loaded onto buses and dropped off on the outskirts of the city.
Authorities later extended the ban on protests until Thursday.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he would attend the match between Israel and France on Thursday – in a bid to promote «brotherhood and solidarity» following the events in Amsterdam.
Meanwhile, Israel urged its citizens to avoid attending cultural and sporting events abroad in the coming week.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel has intelligence that pro-Palestinian groups abroad plan to harm Israelis in cities in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and other countries.
Monday, Nov. 11
Due to high tensions, dozens of people set fire to a tram in Amsterdam on Monday night.
Video geolocated by NBC News shows the group throwing fireworks and other blunt objects at the streetcar, with some chanting «Jews are cancer.» Police said it was unclear who started the riots and whether they were connected to what happened last week.
Police announced on Monday that five new arrests had been made over the weekend. The five men, all residents of the Netherlands, aged between 18 and 37, are «suspected of public violence against persons on Thursday evening,» it said.
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