Dutch police arrested dozens of protesters who held a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration in Amsterdam on Sunday, defying a ban ordered days after clashes provoked by Israeli football fans took place in the city.
Earlier in the day, the Amsterdam District Court put in place a three-day ban on protests following unrest between Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans and Dutch youth.
On Wednesday and Thursday, travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans stirred trouble in different parts of the Dutch capital by chanting racist anti-Arab slogans ahead of their Uefa Europa League match against Amsterdam club Ajax.
Hooligans were also seen removing at least two Palestinian flags from what appeared to be residential buildings the night before the match. On match day, Israeli fans heading to the Johan Cruyff Arena stadium were heard shouting “Let the IDF [Israeli army] fuck the Arabs”, according to footage shared on social media. They also refused to participate in a minute of silence before kick-off for at least 200 people who died in the Valencia floods.
Amid the provocations against Arabs in the city, clashes erupted between the Israeli hooligans and a number of Dutch youths before and after the match and late into the night.
In one video posted by news site Bender, a large group of Maccabi supporters were seen arming themselves with sticks, pipes and rocks and twice clashing with opponents when they marched into the city.
Mayor Femke Halsema on Friday said the attacks were carried out by “antisemitic hit-and-run squads”, a narrative widely slammed on social media, and announced a protest ban and emergency measures to stay in place until Monday morning.
On Sunday afternoon, however, hundreds of peaceful protesters gathered in Dam Square, in the city centre, amid heavy police presence.
The protesters chanted slogans and carried placards including one that read: “We can fight anti-Semitism and genocidal Zionism at the same time.”
Fascists storm through your city. They vandalize homes and cars, chant genocidal chants, and beat up your neighbors.
Some people organize to fight back.
You get blamed for being evil as you didn’t support the fascists and also footage of the fascists hunting your neighbor are used to accuse you of being evil as you didn’t support the fascists.
The government takes side with the fascists and forbids you from protesting while the fascists sing in celebration on their flights home.
Clearly you are at fault for not accepting this. If you had just put your head on the curb for them to stomp it, you could have prevented all of this! You are in the wrong for not letting them beat you up in peace. Now the poor government has a whole mess to deal with, because you didn’t just accept being stomped by the fascists. That makes you the one at fault and the wrong one in this story. Don’t you know these fascists are superior to you? Why don’t you know your place?