The president of the United States does not normally tweet, as he did last week, about football fans fighting in a European city. But as reactions to the violence in Amsterdam have shown, this was no ordinary outburst of football hooliganism, but another polarising moment in the debate about antisemitism.

The trouble in Amsterdam after the Europa League game between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv was not even a traditional fight between rival football fans. I’ve been watching football since the 1970s and, like many others, have become attuned to the bizarre subculture of football violence.

Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have a poor reputation in Israeli football and the behaviour of some of their number before the match in Amsterdam shows why. According to police, fans tore down a Palestinian flag and burned it, shouting, “Fuck you, Palestine”, attacked a taxi, and vandalised others.

After the match, however, events took a very different turn. In the city centre far from the stadium, what the mayor, Femke Halsema, has described as violent “hit and run” attacks on Israeli supporters by groups of local people took place. These were not football fans engaging in the usual inter-hooligan punch-ups, but rather a coordinated series of antisemitic assaults. Messages on Telegram and WhatsApp called for a “Jew hunt”. Taxi drivers allegedly used their apps to locate targets. Random people........

© The Guardian