A Dutch court handed down sentences of up to six months in prison to the first people tried over the unrest that broke out in Amsterdam at Ajax’s local football club in Israel. Maccabi Tel Aviv.
After more than a month the city was held by which the magistrates described “ as a “toxic cocktail” of hooliganism, antisemitism and anger over the war in Gaza, the district court found five men guilty of crimes that ranged from Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to inciting violence in a chat group.
The prosecutor said the violence had “little to do with football”, but added that “in this case there is no indication of terrorism … and the violence was not motivated by anti-Semitic sentiment”.
The prosecutor added: “Velita was moved by the situation.” Gazanot antisemitism.
The first five defendants, whose ages range from 19 to 32, were charged with public violence, theft and assault. The longest sentence handed down was six months in prison for someone accused of kicking one man and punching several others.
Another received a one-month prison sentence after being convicted of assaulting fans and violently ripping off a Maccabi scarf from one of them, while a 19-year-old was sentenced to 100 hours of community service for participating in a group chat. using antisemitic terms and throwing stones at the police.
In addition, six suspects are expected to appear in court at a later date.
The judge said such crimes were more common than community service. “But the court finds that, given the gravity of the offense and the context in which it was committed, only prison terms are appropriate,” he said.
The uprising took place in five towns, leaving only a few hospitals and the city’s Jewish and Muslim communities fear of struggle. Police arrested more than 60 people, including 10 who live in Israel. The investigation into the violence is ongoing, and police have released images of several suspects they hope to identify.
Reports of disturbances one day he began to emerge before a football match. Maccabi police said Palestinian fans tore down a flag from the front of the building and burned it, “Futalitas, Palestine”; the attack on the taxi belts and slaughtered others.
A police callout said then that a number of taxi drivers had gathered at a square near the Max Euweplein, where about 400 Israeli fans had gathered. The police dispersed the driver and escorted supporters from the casino.
The next day there was a rally in the center of DAM Square, where a large crowd of Maccabi supporters had gathered. Fans of the film chanting racist, anti-Arabic slogans on the way to the Johan Cruyff Arena.
Police escorted 2,600 fans to the game to disperse protesters who had protested the ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the stadium.
After the match, how Ajax In a 5-0 win, many attacks were described by city mayor Femke Halsema as “hit and run” attacks on Israeli supporters. Eyewitness accounts and screenshots of text messages suggest that some have specifically targeted Jews, asking people if they are Israeli or to show their passports.
Among those leading the international outcry was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who condemned the riots as “an organized anti-Semitic attack against Israeli citizens” and later described the violence as comparable to the massacre of an estimated 91 Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938. as “Kristallnacht … in the streets of Amsterdam”.
In an emotional news conference the morning after the riots, Halsema said the city had been “gravely damaged” by “anti-Semitic hatred”.
Halsema later said he regretted the parallel he had drawn between the violence and “the memory of the pogroms”, as he felt the term had been used in propaganda to describe what had happened on the streets of Amsterdam.
Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report