Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Friday condemned the violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam a night earlier as a "terrible antisemitic attack".
"It's a terrible antisemitic attack. We will not tolerate (it). We will prosecute the perpetrators. And I'm deeply ashamed that this could happen in the Netherlands in 2024," Schoof told reporters on the sidelines of an EU leaders' meeting in Budapest, as quoted by AFP.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the attack and described the violence as “an eruption of antisemitism that we had hoped never again to see in Amsterdam.”
Halsema said men on scooters roamed the city and attacked the fans, adding that the violence brought to mind pogroms against Jewish people from European history and that she finds this to be reprehensible.
The mayor added that her heart goes out to the victims and their families in Amsterdam and Israel.
Earlier, Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders called on Halsema to resign.
“A Jew hunt in Amsterdam. It is totally unacceptable that there was insufficient police protection to prevent this violence and protect the people. The mayor of Amsterdam must resign today,” he wrote in a post on social media site X.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)