EDITORIAL — Keep politics out of sports

Several Israeli football fans were assaulted in widespread attacks against Israelis in Amsterdam following a Europa League match between Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Dutch team Ajax last Thursday. The attacks became so extensive the Dutch government banned protesting for three days.

There has always been a certain hooliganism associated with football. It comes with the territory considering how passionate --meaning violent-- some fans can become. But authorities said what happened appears not to have been born out of a sports rivalry, but of out hatred for the Israeli football fans just being Israelis.

Some sources have even said that the attacks were planned before the match, with gangs of youths carrying out “hit-and-run” attacks specifically on Israeli football fans. Dutch authorities have called what happened a “pogrom” and apologized for the behavior of some of their citizens.

We aren’t sure what sparked the attacks, but it should also be mentioned that the day before the match, Maccabi supporters were seen burning a Palestinian flag, chanting anti-Arab slogans, and also attacked a taxi driver.

The Maccabi supporters shouldn’t have done what they did; they were there for the sporting event. There was no need to bring their sentiments regarding the ongoing war in Gaza into it.

If nothing else, sports is the one event that brings people from different parts of the world and different backgrounds together. It creates a level playing field where even the fiercest rivals can become fair competitors for a day, granted they follow the rules of sportsmanship. It should not be used a venue to advance one’s political beliefs, especially one that may not be popular in one part of the world or another.

But then again, those who attacked them shouldn’t have done what they did either, whether they did it for a sports rivalry or their support for the Palestinians in Gaza. Assaulting someone just because you don’t agree with what their government has decided on or what some of their countrymen are doing doesn’t make sense.