Revealed: How Pro-Palestinian mob organised via WhatsApp to ‘Hunt Jews’ across Amsterdam

Fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv attacked before and after their team’s Europa League match against Ajax

The most famous and revered stop on Amsterdam’s tourist trail is the four-storey house on the Prinsengracht canal where the diarist Anne Frank lived in hiding for two years.
Now a museum, it is one of Europe’s most powerful reminders of the Holocaust, with a near-sacred status as a memorial to Jews like Anne who were exterminated by the Nazis.
On Thursday night, a terrible echo of the “Jew hunts” that took place during the German occupation played out just a few hundred yards from Anne Frank’s House as Israeli football fans were pursued through the streets and attacked.
The parallels were too obvious to ignore, prompting the Dutch king to say his country had failed Jewish people just as it did during the Second World War.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration had coincided with a European football match between the Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Israeli side, and Ajax, the local team whose fans refer to themselves as the “Super Jews”. The result was as shaming as it was foreseeable.
Videos posted on social media showed fans of the two teams being punched, kicked and humiliated as pro-Palestinian marchers shouted anti-Semitic slurs at them.
Now it has emerged that the attacks on the Jewish football fans were planned in advance and co-ordinated using WhatsApp and Telegram.
The Telegraph has seen messages from a group chat called Buurthuis, a Dutch word for a type of community centre, which were posted on Wednesday, the day before the match.
One message says: “Tomorrow after the game, at night, part 2 of the Jew Hunt.
“Tomorrow we work them.”
Another member of the group says: “Who can sort fireworks?” adding, “We need a lot of fireworks”. Participants refer to “cancer dogs”, a particularly vile insult in the Netherlands.
The previous day had some skirmishes, which the Jewish fans escaped by going into a local casino. One of the messages sent by the pro-Palestinians said: “They won’t go to the casino any more.”
Tensions had been running high before the match because Amsterdam was in the midst of a week of pro-Palestinian protests.
The demonstrators had wanted to protest at the Johan Cruyff Arena, home of Ajax, but Femke Halsema, the city’s mayor, ordered police to keep them a kilometre away from the stadium.
Some demonstrators tried to get to the stadium anyway but were stopped.
Police were given stop-and-search powers within areas deemed a security risk and riot police patrolled the streets. Yet, they failed to prevent violence that has attracted condemnations from around the world.
One piece of footage posted online shows a man who had jumped into a canal in a desperate attempt to escape his attackers.
As he thrashes around in the water, a pursuer shouts: “Say Free Palestine, and we’ll let you go,” and spits out a vile Dutch phrase that means “Cancer Jew”.
The person who posted the video on X commented: “This coward jumped into the canal, afraid of getting beaten.” It was accompanied by “crying with laughter” emojis.
Another video shows a man who appears unconscious on the street being repeatedly kicked as he lies in the fetal position.
A third film shows a young Israeli football fan cornered in a narrow alley where he ends up crouching on the floor. He begs for mercy but his assailants knock him out with a punch to the head.
There is little wonder why one Israeli diplomat described it as “a pogrom”.
Ben Myers, a British-Israeli living in Amsterdam, said injured football fans were rushed to safe houses by a group of Israeli men and women who mobilised on WhatsApp groups.
Mr Myers, who helped coordinate the rapid response, said the Jewish community had been failed by the Dutch police.
He added: “It really was a testament to the power of the women, organising a mini Dunkirk and getting Israelis to safety.
“There were definitely people being pushed into canals. They must have known it was going to kick off. One of the biggest gripes was the lack of police action. A lot of Israelis were saying they didn’t see police for hours.
“Even when they did, they were driving nonchalantly by. It was definitely a failure by the Dutch police to protect the football fans.”
Two Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Aviv and Harel, told the Kan public broadcaster: “There was a police force standing on the side, not doing too much when there was some kind of protest. Each of us had been to the Netherlands four times; we had never felt like this before.”
Violence flared when a group gathered at the National Monument in Dam Square – the country’s cenotaph – started chanting pro-Palestinian slogans at passing Israeli fans.
One Maccabi Tel Aviv fan dressed in a blue and yellow dressing gown gestured at the protestors and shouted “f— you” and others joined in by shouting “f— you Palestine”.
Maccabi fans descending into the Amsterdam metro sang: “Let the IDF win, we will f—* the Arabs” and “f— you Palestine.”
What appeared to be a visiting fan was filmed being hoisted up to a first-floor window where he grabbed a Palestinian flag and tore it down.
Soon the football fans were being chased through the streets by locals.
The victims included a man wearing the yellow strip of Tel Aviv crouching on the ground as his attackers kicked him and shouted: “It’s for the children motherf——.”
“Please take all my money,” he responded in desperation, in a video posted on social media.
The attackers responded: “Free Palestine now.”
Further video footage showed a man being kicked to the ground as fireworks went off around him.
He was dragged along the street and then tried to escape as a pro-Palestinian assailant filmed the scene and said: “Now you know how it feels.”
He shouted: “That’s Gaza. That’s Palestine. That’s Gaza motherf—–.”
Others had narrow escapes.
Amit Amira, a Maccabi fan, said: “Three people approached me on the street and asked where I was from. I said, ‘Greece.’ One of them grabbed my hand and told me to show my ID. I pushed him away and went into the casino.
“We stood at the entrance to the casino, and no one wanted to help us. They told us, ‘Why did you come here?’ In the end, an Arab Israeli helped us. He said, ‘No one will mess with you. You’re with me.’ He ordered two taxis for us, and we escaped.”
Amsterdam was known as the Jerusalem of the West before the war because of its thriving Jewish population, many of whom supported Ajax, whose stadium was close to the Jewish quarter. Giant Israeli flags are a common sight at Ajax home games.
Today, Amsterdam also has a large Arab population, including more than 77,000 Moroccans who live in the Dutch capital.
In the aftermath of the attacks, many shaken and traumatised Maccabi fans said they were the victim of what some said were pre-planned attacks that could have ended in fatalities as they sought to leave the Netherlands on the first available flight.
One shaken Israeli woman who spoke to Dutch media NOS from Amsterdam’s Schipol airport: “It seems like it was organised. There were a lot of people. They saw everyone in yellow.
“They jumped on us. They stabbed people. They beat them. They did horrible things. We hid in the hotel until it was safe outside.”
Others said they would not return to Amsterdam and were even scared to take taxis to the airport for fear of being attacked by drivers, some of whom apparently took part in the clashes.
In all, five people were hospitalised and 62 were arrested, according to local police.
Rescue flights were sent to Amsterdam to get the Tel Aviv fans home safely. As one flight waited on the runway, passengers posted social media videos of everyone on the plane punching the air and shouting with relief.
Dozens of armed police officers stood guard at the check-in desk, cornered off passengers travelling on the last flight from Schiphol airport to Tel Aviv on Friday evening.
Outside, still wearing his navy Maccabi Tel Aviv tracksuit, Ofek Ziv’s voice begins to break as he recalls being ambushed by the pro-Palestinian mob.
The 27-year-old financial advisor was hit by a rock as he and other fans were attacked by a gang of ski-masked men.
He told The Telegraph: “We have been let down by the police and the country. They did nothing. I was frightened, I was in shock. It was a very intense moment because you don’t expect to get attacked in this country – they accept all cultures.”
The ambush echoed that of October 7, in which he lost a close friend, he said.
He added: “My friend was killed in Nova on October 7. It’s the same feeling today – you see all these people attacked without any help and you can do nothing.”