Makkabi Youth Soccer Club Assaulted at Berlin as a Pogrom Erupts Against Maccabi Tel Aviv While Playing a Dutch Club at Amsterdam

BERLIN — Players and spectators attacked members of Makkabi Berlin, a Jewish youth soccer team, during a match at the German capital yesterday evening, coincidentally as similar events unfolded at Amsterdam against supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv, a professional Israeli team that played a Dutch club.A rabbi in the German military and founding member of the Jewish community Kahal Adass Yisroel, and father of one of the Makkabi players, Schlomo Afanasev, took to X to detail yesterday’s events.“My 13-year-old son played a soccer game with his friends from Makkabi Berlin in Neukölln yesterday,” Mr. Afanasev wrote. “Unfortunately, the atmosphere during the game became increasingly aggressive and hostile.”“Our children were insulted and even spat on several times — and this without the referee intervening or even paying any attention.”“After the game, the situation escalated further: children and adults were followed and loudly insulted,” the rabbi explained.“My son came home deeply shaken and only found out from his friends via WhatsApp that the situation had become even more threatening later.”Yesterday’s attack at Berlin occurred as similar events unfolded at Amsterdam against supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv, a professional Israeli team that played a Dutch club yesterday.In a voice message, Mr. Afanasev recounted yesterday’s events to The New York Sun and explained that he is “a bit battered” by what happened at the soccer match.Although he was not at the match yesterday, Mr. Afanasev tells the Sun, “it’s been really unpleasant” and that “the children were terrified” by the experience.Though the attack profoundly unsettled Mr. Afanasev’s son, he found out via WhatsApp from his friends afterward that the aggression against the Makkabi players nearly became intensely violent.According to the WhatsApp message his son received, the players and supporters of the opposing team shouted “free Palestine” and “fucking Jews” at the Makkabi Berlin players.After changing and leaving together after the match, “there were Arab boys and two girls who started insulting [Makkabi players] … we looked behind us and about 10 Arab boys were running towards us with sticks and knives.”The Makkabi players managed to get into their cars and quickly drive away, narrowly averting a broader escalation of violence. Mr. Afanasev also confirmed to the Sun that Makkabi players saw a knife.Yesterday’s incident against Makkabi Berlin is not the first occasion violence has been used against supporters of Jewish soccer clubs at Berlin.On Sunday, emergency services responded to an attack at a local bar by unknown assailants against a Jewish man at Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood.According to a police report detailing the incident, the suspect in that attack approached a 50-year-old man at around 8 p.m. and asked him about the German-Jewish soccer scarf he wore.The suspect then asked the man about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and proceeded to insult the man before punching him in the face and fleeing on foot.

Makkabi Youth Soccer Club Assaulted at Berlin as a Pogrom Erupts Against Maccabi Tel Aviv While Playing a Dutch Club at Amsterdam

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