The government in Amsterdam launched an inquiry into whether alerts from Jerusalem were overlooked prior to the mob attacks carried out on Thursday night against Israeli soccer fans, Justice Minister David van Weel said in a letter to the Dutch Parliament, Reuters reported on Saturday.
“An investigation is still being conducted on possible warning signs from Israel,” Van Weel said in the letter, delivered on Friday.
He added that “the Public Prosecution Service has stated that it aims to apply fast-track justice as much as possible.” He went on to state that the investigation would also examine whether the assaults had been organized in advance and if their motive was antisemitic.
According to the Hebrew news outlet Ynet, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs issued an unusual warning about a potential “violent pro-Palestinian protest” in Amsterdam hours before the UEFA Europa League soccer match took place on Thursday between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and local Ajax.
The report said that the ministry designated the level of threat as “very high,” pointing to several social-media accounts that framed the protest as a “direct clash with Israeli security forces and the Mossad.”
These accounts called on people to arrive near the stadium where the game was taking place, and openly called to commit violence.
One Instagram post by a Dutch “Palestinian” group, for example, showed Maccabi Tel Aviv fans with the text: “No Zionists in UEFA/FIFA.”
In light of the “open encouragement to violence from the protest organizers, the request not to involve minors in the protest and the expected thousands of soccer fans easily identified as Israelis near the stadium, this event can be classified as very high risk,” the ministry’s warning document read.
According to Ynet, this document was presented by the ministry to the Mossad, which then requested of its Dutch counterparts that they bolster local security forces to protect the Israeli fans visiting Amsterdam to attend the soccer match.
Nevertheless, the report said, despite discussions held between Israel’s Diaspora and Foreign Ministries, no warning was issued to the Maccabi team or the approximately 3,000 fans who traveled to the Dutch capital.
“It is unbelievable that they had a targeted warning for an event that was to take place hours later and we let [the fans] get beaten and humiliated. Publishing a public warning would have prevented much of what happened,” sources who were “involved in the situation” told Ynet.
Israeli authorities with the mandate to issue such warnings are the Foreign Ministry and National Security Council. On Friday morning, the NSC urged Israelis not to leave their hotel rooms, and warned against exhibiting any Israeli and Jewish symbols when leaving their hotels for the airport.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Amsterdam police told JNS that it has “launched a major investigation into multiple violent incidents. So far, it is known that five people have been taken to the hospital and 62 individuals have been arrested.”
Four people remained in custody on Saturday, according to the police, Reuters reported.
