Five men were convicted in the Netherlands on Tuesday for attacking Israeli soccer fans in last month’s Amsterdam riots that were widely considered to be antisemitic.
A Dutch court found the individuals guilty of carrying out hit-and-run attacks and inciting violence in group chats, news outlets reported. One offender was handed a six-month sentence in jail, while another was given ten weeks, and two more each face one month of detention. The fifth offender is required to do community service because he’s a juvenile.
The riots broke out in the early morning of November 8 after a European League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Amsterdam’s Ajax. A second wave of riots started three days later, with rioters lighting a Dutch tram on fire. Fans of the Israeli team were brutalized by a mob believed to be driven by antisemitism, although the prosecutor said “there was no evidence” suggesting “a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by anti-Semitic sentiment.”
Rather, “the violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza,” the prosecutor said.
At the time, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence as antisemitism. Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema said the attacks were similar to historic pogroms, but later backtracked that comparison by saying the word “pogrom” had been used as propaganda in this case.
The attacks followed two days of skirmishes in which Maccabi fans chanted anti-Arab songs, vandalized a taxi, and burned a Palestinian flag. In response, gangs of masked assailants beat up and harassed the Israeli tourists. Social media posts at the time called for people to “hunt Jews.”
Dutch police said they were investigating at least 45 people over the incidents, including those carried out by the Maccabi fans.
The court looked at the unrest committed by both sides. It concluded there was “no justification for calling for and using physical violence against Israeli supporters.”
The five convicted defendants are the first to be tried for their participation in the attacks.
Sefa O., 32, was found to have played a leading role in the violence. In video footage during the trial, he can be seen kicking a victim who fell against a moving tram and hit other victims as well. He was given the longest sentence of six months in prison.
Rachid O., 26, called the intended victims of the attacks as “cowardly” Jews in a WhatsApp group chat that was used by more than 900 people to relay information in order to “commit violence against people of Jewish descent and/or supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv,” the court said. He must serve ten weeks in jail.
Umutcan A., 24, was seen in video surveillance footage kicking and attacking several Maccabi fans, one of which he grabbed by the throat and took his scarf. The man wrote about a “Jew hunt” in group chats, but he said during trial that he did not hate Jews.
Karanveer S., 26, was already convicted of assault in 2022, but he went ahead and took part in last month’s attacks anyway. Along with Umutcan, he will be placed in detention for a month.
Lucas D., 19, attacked a police officer and called for violence against Maccabi fans in a Snapchat group. Prosecutors called for the court to give him a jail term. He was handed a community service order instead under the juvenile law in the Netherlands.
All five can appeal the penalties within two weeks or else serve the time.