On Sunday, Antwerp police arrested several youths as they were allegedly planning to attack Jewish people in the city.

The suspects were apprehended after exchanging messages on social media following the assault of dozens of Israelis in Amsterdam, in the neighboring Netherlands, Belgian police officials told Belgian daily De Morgen.

The Mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, said he would welcome the return of soldiers to the streets of the city’s Jewish Quarter if this were necessary to ensure the security and safety of those that live there.

He was speaking in response to Sunday’s police operation in which several youths were taken into preventative custody as they were allegedly planning to attack Jewish people in the city.

Antwerp police arrested six people on Sunday, including a 17-year-old, on suspicion of conspiring to attack Jews from the city’s heavily haredi community. The suspects were apprehended after exchanging messages on social media following the assault of dozens of Israelis in Amsterdam, in the neighboring Netherlands, Belgian police officials told Belgian daily De Morgen.

The incident in Antwerp coincided with concern that the assaults in the Netherlands—the country’s biggest series of antisemitic assaults in decades—mark the beginning of a new wave of coordinated attacks by Muslims in Europe against Jews.

“Some young individuals agreed to perpetrate a similar action in Antwerp in the Jewish Quarter, which is why we heightened security,” the city’s police commissioner Wouter Bruyns told De Morgen.

Speaking to Flemish public tv VRT, Mayor De Wever said: “I have always opposed what was a unilateral decision by the outgoing federal government to end the deployment of troops as there had been no change in the level of threat towards the Jewish community.’’

The mayor of Antwerp went on to highlight the continued deployment of officers from the local and federal police services to address security concerns felt by the Jewish community in Antwerp since the start of the conflict in Gaza.

Following Sunday’s arrests, a strong feeling of insecurity has once again taken hold within the Jewish community.

Bart De Wever told VRT News that he understands fully the concerns of his city’s Jewish community. “I fully understand the concerns of the Jewish community, for whom the unilateral decision to withdraw soldiers from the streets of the area where they live was a real slap in the face. We should monitor the situation closely. I would also be very happy to see the soldiers return if this is useful and necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of Antwerp’s Jewish community.”

He stressed that the Antwerp City Council will ensure that foreign conflicts are not imported into the city.

Separately, the Dutch parliament is holding on Tuersday an emergency debate on on last week’s assaults in Amsterdam. At least 100 young Muslim men participated in the preplanned attacks on Israeli football fans leaving a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local Ajax team.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, the largest party in the Netherlands and part of the ruling coalition, demanded that the perpetrators be deported. He also demanded an emergency debate to discuss how the assaults were made possible and again after hearing that all 62 detainees in police custody were arrested before or after the assaults, but none during them. He also called the incident a “pogrom.”

Police in Amsterdam arrested several suspects after dozens of rioters clashed with officers on Monday night and set a tram car on fire while chanting antisemitic slogans.

Footage from the scene caught at least one of the participants shouting, “Cancer Jews,” indicating that the violence was an extension of attacks perpetrated by Muslim and Arab rioters against the Israeli fans last Thursday night.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof doubled down on his criticism of the attacks on Israeli fans calling it “unadulterated antisemitic violence,” while insisting that there is no excuse for the “deliberate hunting down of Jews.”

“Four days after the attacks the shock, shame and anger remain. It was unadulterated antisemitic violence. We need hard action” to deal with those responsible, Schoof said on Monday at a press conference, adding that “intolerance cannot be met with tolerance.”

Dutch police are investigating images from CCTV cameras as well as from testimony from witnesses who saw the violence, including the attacks on Maccabi fans as well as the conduct of the Israeli fans themselves, according to Dutch media.

“I also know that there are images about the behavior of the Maccabi supporters. This too is being investigated and it is important that all facts are revealed,” Schoof said.

Video on social media showed Maccabi fans chanting anti-Arab slogans and ripping down Palestinian flags from buildings near where they were staying.

“But there is a big difference between destroying things and hunting Jews,” Schoof says.
“There is nothing, absolutely nothing to serve as an excuse for the deliberate search and hunting down of Jews,” said the Dutch prime minister, adding: “We have failed our Jewish community.”

Schoof was to meet members of the Jewish community on Tuesday to discuss measures to combat antisemitism.