“The impact extends far beyond the subway and the stadium. They are copied by children in the classroom who think it’s cool to use ‘Jew’ as a term of abuse.”
The Algemeiner reports that the arrest of more than 150 soccer fans on Saturday by Dutch police as they chanted antisemitic slogans on their way to a top-flight match in Amsterdam has been greeted as an “important” signal that hatred of Jews will no longer be met with impunity, the Netherlands national coordinator for combating antisemitism said on Monday.
The 154 supporters of Dutch team AZ Alkmaar were detained by police officers as they made their way to Saturday’s match against Amsterdam’s flagship side Ajax, which is widely regarded as a “Jewish” club in the mythology of Dutch soccer. As they traveled to the city’s Johan Cruyff Arena on the metro, police officers repeatedly ordered the fans to stop chanting antisemitic slogans that are frequently heard at soccer matches in the Netherlands, among them “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas,” “all Jews must die,” and “we burn Jews together, because Jews burn best.”
The metro was eventually stopped at the Strandvliet station at 7.30 pm, where police officers arrested the fans after they failed to heed repeated warnings to stop the chants, Dutch news outlet De Volksrant reported. Following the arrests, violence broke out on the bus transporting the fans to a local jail, with windows smashed and two police officers assaulted and verbally abused. Eleven fans subsequently spent the night in the cells. The public prosecutor is currently deliberating on whether to press further charges against the group.
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