BERLIN — Players and spectators attacked members of Makkabi Berlin, a Jewish youth soccer team, during a match in the German capital last night, as similar events took place in Amsterdam against Maccabi Tel supporters Aviv, an Israeli professional team that faced a Dutch club. .

Rabbi of the German army and founding member of the Kahal Adass Yisroel Jewish community, and father of one of the Mecca players, Schlomo Afanasev, taken at to detail yesterday’s events.

“My 13-year-old son played a football match yesterday with his friends from Makkabi Berlin in Neukölln,” Mr. Afanasev wrote. “Unfortunately, the atmosphere during the match became more and more aggressive and hostile.”

“Our children were insulted and even spat on several times, and this without the referee intervening or even paying attention.”

“After the match, the situation degenerated further: children and adults were followed and loudly insulted,” explained the rabbi.

“My son came home deeply shaken and only learned from his friends via WhatsApp that the situation had become even more threatening. »

Yesterday’s attack in Berlin happened while similar events were taking place in Amsterdam against the supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv, an Israeli professional team who faced a Dutch club yesterday.

In a voicemail, Mr. Afanasev recounted yesterday’s events to the New York Sun and explained that he was “a little beat up” by what happened at the football game.

Although he was not at the match yesterday, Mr Afanasev told The Sun that “it was really unpleasant” and that “the kids were terrified” by the experience.

Although the attack deeply destabilized Mr. Afanasev’s son, he later learned via WhatsApp from his friends that the attack on the Makkabi players had almost become intensely violent.

According to the WhatsApp message his son received, players and supporters of the opposing team shouted “Free Palestine” and “Fuck Jews” at Makkabi Berlin players.

After changing and leaving together after the match, “there were some Arab boys and two girls who started insulting (the Mecca players)… we looked behind us and about ten Arab boys were running towards us with sticks and knives.”

The Makkabi players managed to get into their car and quickly flee, narrowly avoiding a wider escalation of violence. Mr Afanasev also confirmed to The Sun that Makkabi players had seen a knife.

Yesterday’s incident against Makkabi Berlin is not the first time that violence has been used against supporters of Jewish football clubs in Berlin.

On Sunday, emergency services responded to an attack at a local bar by unknown assailants on a Jewish man in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district.

According to a police report detailing the incidentThe suspect in that attack approached a 50-year-old man around 8 p.m. and asked him about the German-Jewish football scarf he was wearing.

The suspect then questioned the man about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and insulted him before punching him in the face and fleeing on foot.