Dutch police arrest 154 football fans for anti-Semitic chants

It’s time for that to end, Ms. Mestrum said. “Ajax has nothing to do with Jews anymore,” she said. But, she added, football rivalries and the abuses associated with them have affected how Jewish people are perceived in society.

“People’s awareness continues to decline,” Ms. Mestrum said. “I am particularly concerned about a lack of historical awareness and the seriousness of anti-Semitism.”

Saturday’s arrests came two days after the Netherlands’ National Day of Remembrance, which commemorates Dutch war victims, including those who died during the Holocaust and World War II as a whole.

“On May 4, we commemorate the victims of war, including 102,000 fellow citizens who were deported to gas chambers,” said Ms. Mestrum. These chants “show a total lack of awareness on the part of the fans.”

In December 2022, the Dutch government announced a plan to combat anti-Semitism in the Netherlands to show that the country is serious about the problem.

Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in the Netherlands, said Ms Mestrum, whose organization recorded 183 cases in 2021 excluding online abuse, a 36 percent increase from the previous year. The country has about 30,000 Jewish people, according to the World Jewish Congress, out of a population of 17 million, with the community centered in Amsterdam.

In the United States, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2022 was the highest since the Anti-Defamation League began tracking in 1979, the Jewish advocacy group said.

Racist and anti-Semitic slogans have also become a growing problem in the Netherlands outside of football. During New Year’s, white supremacist phrases – including “happy white 2023” – were projected on a bridge in Rotterdam. In February, anti-Semitic statements based on a conspiracy theory were made projected on the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.