24 December 2024 , 15:03
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Dutch prosecutor hands out jail sentences of up to six months, saying fighting between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv fans ‘had little to do’ with sport
A Dutch court has handed down sentences of up to six months in prison to the first men to be tried over the unrest that erupted in Amsterdam as local football team Ajax took on Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv.
More than a month after the city was gripped by what officials described as “a toxic cocktail” of hooliganism, antisemitism and anger over the war in Gaza, a district court found the five men guilty of crimes that ranged from kicking fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv to inciting violence in chat groups.
The prosecutor said the violence had “little to do with football” but added that “in this case, there was no evidence of … a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by antisemitic sentiment”.
The prosecutor added: “The violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza, not by antisemitism.”
The first five defendants, whose ages ranged from 19 to 32, were accused of public violence, theft and assault. The longest sentence handed out was six months in prison, given to a man accused of kicking one person and punching several others.
Another man received a one-month prison sentence after he was found guilty of assaulting fans and violently ripping a Maccabi scarf from one of them, while a 19-year-old was sentenced to 100 hours of community service for participating in a chat group where antisemitic terms were used and for throwing stones at police.
A further six suspects are expected to appear in court at a later date.
The judge said such crimes would have normally warranted community service. “But the court finds that, given the seriousness of the offence and the context in which it was committed, only imprisonment is appropriate,” she said.
The unrest resulted in five people being briefly hospitalised and left the city’s Jewish and Muslim communities in fear. Police arrested more than 60 people, including 10 who live in Israel. The investigation into the violence is continuing and police have released images of several suspects they hope to identify.
Reports of disturbances began to emerge the day before the football match. Police said Maccabi fans tore down a Palestinian flag from the facade of a building and burned it, shouted “fuck you, Palestine”, attacked a taxi with their belts, and vandalised others.
Police said an online callout then led a number of taxi drivers to converge on a casino on the nearby Max Euweplein square, where about 400 Israeli fans had gathered. Police dispersed the drivers and escorted supporters out of the casino.
The next day there were clashes on the central Dam Square, where a large crowd of Maccabi supporters had gathered. The fans were filmed chanting racist, anti-Arab slogans on their way to the Johan Cruyff Arena.
Police escorted the 2,600 fans to the game and dispersed protesters who had defied a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the stadium.
After the match, which Ajax won 5-0, there were numerous assaults, described by the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, as violent “hit and run” attacks on Israeli supporters. Witness accounts and screenshots of text messages suggest some had specifically targeted Jews, asking people if they were Israeli or to show their passports.
Among those leading the international outcry was the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who condemned the clashes as a “planned antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens” and later compared the violence to the murder of an estimated 91 Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938, describing it as “Kristallnacht … on the streets of Amsterdam”.
At an emotionally charged news conference the morning after the unrest, Halsema said the city had been “deeply damaged” by “hateful antisemitic rioters”.
Halsema later said that she regretted the parallel she had drawn between the violence and “memories of pogroms” as she felt the term had been used as propaganda when it came to describing what had transpired on the streets of Amsterdam.