The role of Rideshare apps in the investigation of attacks on Jews in Amsterdam

According to multiple reports, many of the perpetrators of the Amsterdam pogrom were hitchhikers who used their apps to coordinate attacks on Jewish fans of the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv visiting the Dutch capital.

Chairman of the Central Jewish Council, which is a group of Dutch Jewish organizations, Shanan Herzberger, said On Friday, the drivers, who were said to be of Arab origin, used ride-sharing apps to plan attacks and ensure “harassed football fans were unable to reach safety” after violence broke out.

“Even the app traffic seems to show that they were carefully planning this mayhem, because they were,” Mr. Herzberger said. “They moved in groups, cornering their targets.”

New York-based pro-Israel activist Lizzie Savetsky also published an interview she gave to a man she identified as the chairman of the Maccabi World Union, who said the attackers “used the Uber network… to organize themselves, they created Uber WhatsApp groups, and most of the attackers belonged to the Uber driver network.”

“It was well organized, it went through the Uber network,” he added.

London Times reports Amsterdam law enforcement is working with services such as Uber to investigate claims on social media that taxi and ride-sharing drivers helped coordinate the violence.

Investigators are looking into whether the drivers helped the attackers target Israelis by searching for accounts with Israeli numbers on ride-sharing apps.

Uber Support Account said on X, the company is “shocked to learn of this disgusting violence.”

“Uber has a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, and while there have been no reported incidents of violence or anti-Semitism in the Uber app, we actively support law enforcement as they work to identify offenders,” the company added.

After a football match between the Israeli national team and the Dutch team Ajax, masked attackers ambushed Israeli fans. Video general Social media showed the attackers, who appeared to be of Arab origin, kicking and punching Israelis. Others showed the attackers lighting fireworks and shooting them at their victims.

The attack left at least 30 Maccabi Tel Aviv fans injured and ten hospitalized. More than 62 people have been arrested in connection with the attack.

Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema. called the attack was an “explosion of anti-Semitism” that occurred during the 86th anniversary celebrations Kristallnachtwhich occurred on November 9, 1938 in Germany, Austria and parts of what is now the Czech Republic.

“Amsterdam remembers a black night, and today is still a dark day. Anti-Semitic, hateful rioters and criminals attacked Jewish visitors to our city yesterday and last night,” Ms. Halsema said at a press conference on Friday.

She also said the attackers were “riding scooters around the city looking for Maccabi supporters.” It was hit and run. Football fans were attacked and then the rioters fled again.”

Reports also indicated that the attackers were looking for Israelis in the hotels where they were supposedly staying.

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, speaking about how the Dutch famously surrendered their Jewish neighbors to the Nazis during the German occupation: said his nation “failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during the Second World War, and last night we failed again.”

Thursday’s violence comes amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands. European Jewish Congress reported In November 2023, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands increased by 818 percent following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.