Israeli Foreign Min. heading to Netherlands; Parliamentary debate on violence next week
Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar will travel to the Netherlands on Friday to talk with his Dutch counterpart, Caspar Veldkamp, about attacks on Israeli football supporters in Amsterdam on Thursday. Parliamentarians have demanded a debate with Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Justice Minister David van Weel on the matter.
Schoof is currently in Budapest for an informal meeting with the other EU heads of state. He will not return early, he told the press. “The Minister of Justice and Security and the Mayor of Amsterdam are very capable of handling this well together,” Schoof said, according to ANP. “I have nothing to add to their work. That is the conclusion this morning in our telephone conversation.”
Supporters of the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked in several places in Amsterdam on Thursday after a match against Ajax. The police reported that five people were hospitalized and 62 arrested. NOS reported seven hospitalizations. The Amsterdam authorities will give a press conference with more information at noon.
Minister David van Weel of Justice and Security said that the perpetrators of the violence against Israeli football fans would be tracked down and punished. “We should be ashamed of ourselves,” he said on Friday.
Earlier on Friday, Schoof condemned the “anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli citizens.” His Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was sending two flights with soldiers and rescue teams to help Israelis in the Netherlands. Later on Friday, his office told The Times of Israel that this was no longer happening. Airline El Al would send extra flights to pick up football supporters, but they won’t have rescue teams on board.
Dutch politicians have widely criticized the violence. PVV leader Geert Wilders posted a large number of statements about it on X, including one comparing the situation in Amsterdam with Kristallnacht and calling the Netherlands “the Gaza of Europe.”
GroenLinks-PvdA leader called it unacceptable that Jewish Israelis were not safe in Amsterdam and were being hunted down and attacked. That is “frightening and makes me angry,” he said. VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz spoke of “incredibly sick images” and “pure scum, pure Jew-hatred.”
Several parties in the Tweede Kamer have demanded an urgent debate with Prime Minister Schoof and Justice Minister Van Weel. The debate will likely take place next week, but the date has not yet been set.
Cabinet ministers are required to meet regularly, according to Dutch regulations. This typically happens on Fridays, but this week’s meeting was moved to Monday, November 11. Unlike his predecessors, Schoof was not comfortable handing over his duties as the Council of Ministers chair to one of the deputy prime ministers.
He confirmed early last month that the Council of Ministers meetings will be rescheduled when Schoof is out of the country on a Friday. Schoof is not officially a member of a political party. Each of the four political parties in the governing coalition has designated one of their Cabinet members to be their party’s deputy prime minister.
Cabinet policy decisions are typically finalized during Council of Minister meetings. Dutch regulations also allow for additional meetings to take place when necessary.
