An Israeli-Druze Maccabi soccer fan saved many Jewish Israelis from being attacked by Arabs during the pogrom on the streets of Amsterdam on Thursday evening.

Melhem Asad, from a Druze village in the Upper Galil, flew to Amsterdam to watch the game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax. When the violence began on the streets following the game, he acted heroically and spent hours on the streets trying to save his fellow Israelis.

Speaking to Israeli media channels, Asad explained how although the police escorted the Israeli fans on the way to the game due to anti-Israel protests, they simply disappeared after the game.

“Before the game, we were at Dam Square and there was good security,” he said. “But after the game ended, we left the stadium to return to the hotel and there was no security – nothing. We felt completely exposed.”

“I heard people across the street speaking Arabic and scheming on how and where to attack the Israeli fans,” Asad continued. “They were saying, ‘Anyone wearing a Maccabi shirt and Israeli symbols is getting beaten to a pulp.’ I tried to confuse them in my language, to say that the Jews had left. I yelled in Arabic so they would think we were Arabs. I did everything to confuse them. I convinced them to go in the other direction.”

“I then ran to warn Israelis to hide their Maccabi Tel Aviv shirts and not to speak Hebrew. I went to restaurants in the area and did it again three or four times. There were people on the ground who were getting beat up around me and I couldn’t help them. I was afraid. I ran between restaurants, alleys, wherever I thought Israelis were.”

Asad elaborated that he was afraid because he felt the intensity of the Arabs’ hatred and how many of them there were.

“I was afraid they would recognize me and kill me. The head of the council and my parents called me, worried about me, but I didn’t want to answer the phone so they wouldn’t hear me and see that I’m an Arab-Israeli and beat me.”

He added that the violence reminded him of October 7 and the burning hatred the Hamas terrorists had for Israelis.

“My heart was burning. Unfortunately, I couldn’t save everyone but I tried to warn as many Israelis as possible. I feel that G-d sent me at the right moment and to the right place to save those I could.”

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)