Only days after Israeli soccer fans were attacked in Holland’s capital city, “Free Palestine” stickers with hidden razor blades were found across Amsterdam, Dutch news De Telefraaf reported on Saturday night, citing police.
A number of the stickers were found outside the city’s Holocaust Museum, but police are unsure how many may be spread across the city.
The hidden blades underneath the stickers prevent them from being safely removed, cutting individuals who attempt to do so.
On Thursday night, Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were assaulted, chased, and robbed in the streets of Amsterdam following a match with Ajax - in what perpetrators described in internal communications as a ‘Jew hunt.’
Labeled a ‘pogrom’ by international media, the attacks fell only days before the anniversary of Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass - when Jewish buildings, synagogues, and businesses were smashed.)
The attacks saw Israel send rare flights on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, to collect Israeli nationals from the city.
Alarming lack of security
While after the attacks, Dutch politicians and officials condemned the attacks, there was much criticism as to why more was not done to protect the Jewish visitors.
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, according to the Washington Post, said, “The police have stood idly by and watched these pogrom-like conditions.”
While only 62 attackers were initially arrested, less than 10 now remain in custody, according to Dutch media.
Last month, Dutch police were criticized by members of the Jewish community and sympathetic politicians after it was discovered officers refused to guard Jewish sites over ‘moral objections.’
After the story broke, Jewish officers spoke with De Telegraaf, who confirmed some members of the police expressed they didn’t want to be deployed at the Dutch National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam and refused food and drinks from the venue.
Mireille Beentjes, the police force's spokeswoman, told De Telegraaf she had heard of officers making moral objections, admitting there were “no strict policies.”
“We take moral objections into account when creating schedules. But if there’s an urgent task, you will be deployed, whether you want to or not," she said. “You are expected to behave professionally. Others shouldn’t notice anything.”
The hidden razor blade technique has seemingly been favored by members of the Far Right over the past several years, according to British media reports.
British Transport Police warned in August that blades had been found underneath a “Rights For Whites” sticker, according to the Daily Mirror. Similar stickers were found in Britain in 2020, according to the Sunday Times.