‘Who benefits from this?’ Soul-searching after the Amsterdam violence

Jewish and Muslim communities speak of heightened fears as questions linger about events around football match

Carrying white signs scrawled with messages urging unity, they took turns laying white roses at the statue of Anne Frank, steps away from the home where she, her family and four other people had hidden from Nazi persecution.

Days after Amsterdam was gripped by what officials described as “a toxic cocktail” of hooliganism, antisemitism and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel, the handful of imams and rabbis from European organisations had travelled to the city in an attempt to calm tensions.