Emergency flights take 2,000 people from Amsterdam to Israel

(JNS) — El Al flew about 2,000 passengers to Ben Gurion-Airport over the weekend on eight emergency flights from Amsterdam, the Jewish state’s flag carrier said, following a coordinated assault on Israelis there on Thursday night.

Most of the emergency flights left on Friday and two flew on Saturday with special permission from the chief rabbis of Israel, who determined that the circumstances justified this violation of observing the Shabbat.

“All passengers have boarded the flights free of charge, and the company continues to work to add more rescue flights throughout Shabbat,” the company said, adding that the operation had cost it millions of dollars. “We’re proud to continue to serve as an anchor for Israel also in difficult times,” the statement read.

El Al has waived some fees for changing flights tickets from Israel to Amsterdam, it said. Israeli carriers Israir and Arkia added flights at reduces rates from Amsterdam to Israel and from Brussels to Israel, they said.

The emergency flights replaced an Israeli military evacuation plan, which the government scrapped at the last moment after it emerged that the situation on the ground had stabilized, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday.

On Thursday night, dozens of Muslims coordinated a mass assault on dozens of Israeli soccer fans as they left a match between the Maccabi Tel Aviv team and the local Ajax one. Five people were moderately injured along with 20 others who received minor injuries, police said.

The incident followed smaller altercations involving Maccabi fans, who reportedly damaged a taxi cab; stole a PLO flag hanging from a building façade and chanted at a metro station about “letting the IDF win and f***k the Arabs.”

The assaults were the largest-scale antisemitic assault in the Netherlands since the Holocaust, and many Israeli leaders and Dutch Jews called them a pogrom. Video filmed by perpetrators showed scenes of public humiliation, including of an Israel who was forced to his knees and made to say “Free Palestine” before being beaten up. At least one Israeli jumped into a canal to escape his attackers. At least one suspected car ramming was reported.

Israel’s National Security Council instructed Israelis in Amsterdam to stay indoors and avoid all travel, except for to airports. On Saturday, the council lifted that warning and reverted to the previous Level 2 one, which speaks of avoiding displaying signs of being Israeli.

On Saturday, the De Telegraaf daily reported that police had confirmed that unidentified individuals left boobytrapped stickers reading “Free Gaza” in Amsterdam, which had concealed blades designed to cut anyone who tried to remove them. Some of the stickers were found near the National Holocaust Museum. 

Dutch Party of Freedom leader Geert Wilders (left) meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Amsterdam, March 11, 2024. Credit: Geert Wilders/X.

Law enforcement agents apprehended 62 people ahead of the assaults, Amsterdam Police chief Peter Holla said on Friday.

But Geert Wilders, the head of Netherlands largest party and senor coalition partner, revealed on Saturday that “Amsterdam Police just confirmed that NO ONE has been arrested during the Islamic Jew-hunt in Amsterdam Thursday night. All arrests have been made before and during the soccer match and NOT during the pogrom.”

Prime Minister Dick Schoof said in a statement Saturday that a “thorough investigation” will be carried out about how the event was allowed to happen and to “bring the perpetrators to justice.”

The Municipality of Amsterdam is carrying out its own independent investigation, Mayor Femke Halsema said at a press conference on Friday.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander in a statement on Friday wrote: “We must not look away from antisemitic behavior on our streets. History has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse, with horrific consequences. Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times. We embrace them all and hold them close.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Willem-Alexander told him that “we failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”

The president added in his own statement, “We see with horror this morning, the shocking images and videos that since Oct. 7, we had hoped never to see again: an antisemitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam, Netherlands.”

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s new foreign minister, and Amir Ohana, the Knesset speaker, flew to Amsterdam on Friday to help the embassy coordinate efforts to evacuate Israelis who decided to cut short their stays in the Netherlands.