Riots in Amsterdam: “The men demanded: You have to show us your passports” | EUROtoday

When she solutions the telephone, Femmetje de Wind is on her method house. She says she spent the entire day in a “safe space” run by Maccabi NL, the Jewish sports activities affiliation within the Netherlands. Israeli soccer followers are ready there to go away the nation after the assaults on Friday evening. Femmetje de Wind is a journalist and press officer at Maccabi NL. She requested followers to explain how they skilled the assaults.

WELT: What are you aware concerning the riots that occurred after Ajax Amsterdam’s sport towards Maccabi Tel Aviv?

Femmetje the Wind: I wasn’t there final evening, however I interviewed some witnesses about it. The image I get is that this: These weren’t two teams of soccer followers combating one another. They have been deliberate actions. One of the folks I spoke to jogged my memory of a guerrilla operation.

WELT: What have folks instructed you?

The Wind: For instance, I spoke to an Israeli who got here right here together with his father and brother. He reported: “It was a real shock for me when I left the stadium. We took the metro back to the main train station, and when we got there I heard fireworks and asked myself: What’s going on here?” The group – five people in total – walked along the sidewalk towards their hotel. At that moment a car came and hit them.

WELT: And then?

The Wind: The Israeli I interviewed is originally from Iran, he is an Iranian Jew. He said he could hear that the attackers were also from Iran. He assumes they were Muslims. The attackers started punching and kicking her. They had baseball bats and iron bars, they were well prepared. As I said, my interlocutor’s father was there, an older man, almost 70. He fell to the ground. Then the group decided to escape.

WELT: Were there no police officers who could intervene?

The Wind: There were police officers nearby, but they didn’t help, the witness said. So he and his people ran away. They finally made it to the hotel, but they were really scared. The hotel was in the west of Amsterdam, where many people with Moroccan or Turkish backgrounds live.

WELT: What did the group do then?

The Wind: They locked themselves in their room and didn’t dare go out. They didn’t sleep all night, didn’t go to breakfast. The father was injured, but they didn’t dare go to the hospital. In the morning they contacted Maccabi NL. The association opened a “safe space” from which individuals might be taken to the airport. A volunteer driver picked up the group and took them there. The father acquired medical remedy and now they’re attempting to get a seat on a aircraft. So they’re nonetheless in a secure place organized by Maccabi.

WELT: What is the current situation there?

The Wind: We’ve been there all day, I’m just heading home. There are a lot of Israelis there, I think about 100 came in. People who sought refuge and were no longer safe in their hotels.

WELT: What other witnesses have you spoken to?

The Wind: With a Dutchman who watched the game in the stadium and then drove home. When he got home, he looked at the situation on social media. On Instagram he saw Israelis being beaten down and hunted. It was one o’clock in the morning when he decided he had to do something. So he jumped in his car, drove into town and looked for Israelis to help them.

“It was only 100 meters down the road, but he didn’t dare go there”

WELT: What exactly was he doing?

The Wind: He drove all night to get people to safe places. He said he transported 30 people. Not just young men, but also a woman and a child who didn’t dare enter their hotel because a group of men were standing outside waiting for them.

WELT: They were there because they had followed other Israelis to their hotel?

The Wind: Exactly. The driver told me about an Israeli who fled with another to his hotel. His own hotel was only 100 meters away. He booked an early flight back to Tel Aviv but still had to get his suitcase from his hotel – it was only 100 meters down the road but he didn’t dare go there. So the driver took him to the hotel. A group of people were already standing there, waiting. They couldn’t go in, so they called the police, who eventually helped them enter the hotel and drive from there to Maccabi headquarters.

WELT: That seems like a nightmare.

The Wind: I spoke to a different man who was choosing folks up from town heart and bringing them to security. He instructed of three Israelis who went to a café after the sport. There was a gaggle of individuals with a North African background who got here as much as them and requested them in the event that they have been Israelis. The males demanded, “You have to show us your passports.” When the Israelis refused to take action, the lads dragged them exterior and beat them. One of them had his tooth knocked out and needed to be hospitalized.

WELT: Politicians condemn the assaults with phrases like: “Anti-Semitism has no place in Europe.” Do you’ve got the sensation that penalties will probably be drawn?

The Wind: In the previous, the mayor of Amsterdam has been very lenient with the precise to meeting, even permitting a big demonstration close to the Holocaust Museum when it opened. Now she is drawing conclusions and has banned demonstrations this weekend. But I see that the Jewish group within the metropolis could be very indignant as a result of too little has been completed to cease anti-Semitism on the streets. Politicians attempt to discuss to either side – however on this case there are usually not two sides that trigger equal issues. The Jewish group doesn’t assault anybody.

WELT: How do politicians take care of this?

The Wind: Hardly anybody dares to deliver this up. The solely individuals who do it are the right-wing extremists. They are utilizing the problem to push their ideology, which can also be not good. We hope that average and left-wing politicians can even rise up and condemn these assaults for what they’re: we skilled a pogrom final evening. And the Jewish group is uninterested in making excuses.