Schoof cut short EU summit, Israeli minister heads for NL

The fall-out from Thursday night’s attacks on Israeli football supporters in Amsterdam continued on Friday afternoon, with prime minister Dick Schoof leaving the EU summit in Budapest early.

Schoof said he had completed his most important business in Budapest and had been in touch with police, ministers and Israeli officials earlier in the day.

“We want Israelis to continue to come to the Netherlands,” he told reporters on the fringes of the summit. “We want them to be safe here. What happened now is shameful.”

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar and parliamentary chairman Amir Ohana are also travelling to the Netherlands to discuss events. According to broadcaster NOS, they will be met at Schiphol airport by justice minister David van Weel and will later meet members of the Amsterdam Jewish community as well as far-right leader Geert Wilders.

Trouble had been simmering all day but after the match groups of “youngsters on mopeds” had gone through the city carrying out hit and run attacks on Israeli supporters, mayor Femke Halsema said.

Police have confirmed 62 people were arrested overnight and 10 people remain in custody. Five supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv were taken to hospital after the rampage, all of whom were released on Friday morning.Some 20 to 30 other people were also injured.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has condemned the “anti-Arabic chanting and attacks on a Palestinian flag” which took place on Wednesday evening, according to Palestinian press agency Wafa.  

On Wednesday night there had been several incidents involving Maccabi fans, one of whom was captured on film tearing a Palestine flag off a building. Footage from Wednesday evening also shows a large group of Maccabi supporters chanting “Fuck you Palestine” in the city centre.

Nevertheless, Halsema told a press conference earlier in the day that the incidents on Thursday evening were not a protest but a crime. “There is no excuse for what happened last night,” she said.

Football club Ajax, the Dutch football association KNVB, and European football body Uefa also condemned the violence.