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Dutch MEP requests emergency debate in EU parliament on pogrom against Israeli football fans in Amsterdam

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MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen (pictured), has requested an urgent debate in the European Parliament on the violence against Jews in Amsterdam that occurred following a Europa League football game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam when in a coordinated assault at least 100 Muslim men brutally attacked Israeli fans after the match, writes Yossi Lempkowicz.

The debate would take place next Wednesday or Thursday during a plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels.

“I am shocked by this outburst of violence in our capital city. At the same time, it is unfortunately not surprising. This is a direct result of months of calls for violence and hatred against Jews in our cities, at our universities and railway stations,’’ said Ruissen, who is a member of the Christian Reformed Political Party (SGP) party in Netherlands and of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the EU assembly.

"Under the guise of the right to demonstrate, this could continue with impunity. therefore call on the European Parliament to debate and condemn these outrageous events as soon as possible," he added.

He said the Netherlands "must also punish the perpetrators as soon as possible and ban organizations, such as Samidoun, that are behind violence and demonstrations in the country. No form of anti-Semitism, not even disguised as a demonstration, should be tolerated."

Both Dutch Prime Minister Dirk Schoofs and King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands apologized for the failure of the Dutch police to protect the Israelis.

Police in Amsterdam on Sunday arrested several dozen people at an unauthorized anti-Israel protest rally at Dam Square where, days earlier, Muslims assaulted Israeli soccer fans.

The arrests followed a three-day city ban on the anti-Israel demonstrations that regularly take place there.

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Five Israelis were moderately wounded and another 20 suffered light injuries. Some 2,000 people left the Netherlands for Israel over the weekend in eight emergency flights organized by El Al, Israel’s flag carrier airline. The assaults, which Israeli President Isaac Herzog called a “pogrom”, shocked many in Israel and beyond.

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