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, NL Times reports.
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.
