JERUSALEM: Newly appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters in Jerusalem Monday that Israel deemed the number of arrests over clashes in Amsterdam last week “very low.”
“I was informed by the mayor of Amsterdam that they formed a special inquiry team, but I can tell that until now, the number of arrests is very low,” Saar said.
Israel had offered to help investigate the violence that broke out in Amsterdam on Thursday following a football match between Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv and the hosts Ajax.
Dutch police said they arrested 62 people in connection over the unrest, which left between 20 and 30 supporters of the Israeli team injured.
The police said they had been chased by groups of people who had answered online calls to target Jews.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema said gangs on scooters targeted fans of the Israeli club, beating and kicking them in “hit-and-run” attacks.
The Dutch city’s police chief said there had been “incidents on both sides” on Wednesday, 24 hours before the match.
“A Palestinian flag was set on fire on the Dam,” he added, referring to Amsterdam’s central square.
Israel deems arrests over Amsterdam clashes ‘very low’
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Israel deems arrests over Amsterdam clashes ‘very low’
- Dutch police said they arrested 62 people in connection over the unrest, which left between 20 and 30 supporters of the Israeli team injured
- “A Palestinian flag was set on fire on the Dam,” Amsterdam’s police chief said, referring to the city’s central square
Spain expects tourist arrivals to keep growing in 2026
- “If growth continues this year, we will reach 100 million foreign tourists,” Hereu said
- Spain is the world’s second most visited country after France
MADRID: Spain expects to host more foreign visitors, and for them to spend more in total, in 2026 after the country welcomed a record 97 million tourists last year, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu told reporters on Thursday.
“If growth continues this year, we will reach 100 million foreign tourists, but we aren’t focused on that,” Hereu said, adding that last year’s figure represented a 3.5 percent increase on 2024, while revenues from tourism rose 6.8 percent to 135 billion euros ($157 billion).
Spain is the world’s second most visited country after France, and tourism is a major source of revenue for the economy, which has by far outgrown its European peers in the past two years.
According to tourism industry lobby Exceltur, the sector accounted for an estimated 13 percent of Spain’s gross domestic product in 2025.
Hereu said in the first four months of this year — including the busy Easter holiday season — authorities were forecasting a 3.7 percent rise in visitors from abroad to 26 million people, who they expect will spend 35 billion euros, up 2.5 percent from the same period last year. The Mediterranean country’s tourism boom, while boosting its economy, has led to tension in many visitor hotspots due to the indirect effect on housing prices, congestion and natural resource degradation problems. Some popular destinations like Ibiza have cracked down on short-term rentals.
Hereu said Spain’s model was moving away from seasonality, as data showed that tourist spending had grown by 53 percent in the low and mid-seasons compared with pre-pandemic year 2019, and by 34 percent in the high season. Two-thirds of tourists who visited Spain in 2025 intend to return as they see it as a safe place, the minister said, adding that there was no sign of global geopolitical issues affecting flight availability or booking trends.
