King King Wilhelm-Alexander of the Netherlands, in phone call to the president of Israel, apologized Friday for the pogrom that erupted in Amsterdam Thursday evening, when Jewish soccer fans were set upon by a antisemitic mob.
In the violence at least 10 persons were injured, several seriously, and scores of Israelis were trapped in their hotels. Israel reportedly scrambled two air force cargo planes to Amsterdam to bring the Jewish fans out of the country to safety.
While European soccer matches are infamous for the violence that sometimes breaks out between fans of opposing teams, what happened in central Amsterdam on Thursday night was of another magnitude. In a post on X, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Danon, described the “reports of extreme violence against Israelis and Jews on the streets of Holland” as “a pogrom taking place in Europe in 2024.”
On Friday Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs said that 10 Israelis soccer fans who were in Amsterdam during the mayhem had yet to make contact, not because they were considered missing but because their cellphones may have been broken or stolen during the attacks.
The Israeli foreign ministry later announced that all the missing persons were contacted and are unhurt. Several Maccabee fans are receiving medical treatment.Dutch police have now arrested 62 suspects, a number that has gone up from the previously reported 57 arrests.
In phone call with Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, on Friday,
King Willem-Alexander said that “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
