Open Letter to the Mayor of Alkmaar, Ms. Anja Schouten
Amsterdam, September 14, 2026
To: Ms. A. Schouten, Mayor of Alkmaar
Subject: Urgent Appeal to Prevent the AZ vs. Hapoel Be’er Sheva Match from Taking Place in Alkmaar on October 15
Dear Ms. Schouten,
The Europa League match between AZ and Hapoel Be’er Sheva is scheduled for October 15 at the AFAS Stadium. Given the exceptional legal, moral, and social circumstances, we strongly urge you not to allow this match to take place in Alkmaar.
This is not a typical sporting event that can be managed solely with sufficient police and security personnel. The events surrounding the Ajax vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv match in November 2024, during which racist hooligans supporting the Israeli team rampaged violently through the streets of Amsterdam, demonstrate how quickly a match involving a complicit Israeli club can escalate in the Netherlands into a serious disruption of public order.
The fans of Hapoel Be’er Sheva FC are no different in this regard. In 2024, a match between Hapoel Be’er Sheva FC and Bnei Sakhnin—a team supported by Palestinian citizens of apartheid Israel—was canceled after violent attacks by Hapoel Be’er Sheva supporters on Bnei Sakhnin fans. During the Israeli national anthem, Bnei Sakhnin supporters had turned their backs in peaceful protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The match took place just 30 kilometers from Gaza.
Even a report by a Zionist Israeli organization shows that during the 2024–25 season, in the midst of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, racist chants among Israeli fans increased by 64% compared to the previous season. The report states: “The most common racist chant, ‘Let the Israeli army win, f**k the Arabs,’ was recorded no fewer than 73 times at various sports venues across the country.”
This is the atmosphere in Israeli soccer: racist, violent, and genocidal.
Leuven as a precedent
The recent decision by the mayor of Leuven, Belgium, is directly relevant in this context. There, it was decided not to hold the Europa League match between Union Saint-Gilloise and Hapoel Be’er Sheva in Leuven due to risks to public safety.
If public safety in Leuven is sufficient reason to cancel such a match, isn’t a similar assessment also necessary in Alkmaar? This is in addition to the city’s fundamental legal and moral obligations not
to be complicit in the cover-up—or “sportswashing”—of genocide, apartheid, and illegal occupation.
We therefore explicitly request that you take Leuven’s decision into account in your deliberations and clarify the basis on which the risks in Alkmaar would be assessed differently.
No “business as usual” in sports
In addition to the safety issue, as mentioned above, there are fundamental moral and legal issues at stake.
The nonviolent, anti-racist Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement calls for an international boycott of teams representing genocidal Israel and of Israeli sports organizations because of their clear complicity.
We support this call because participation in international sports cannot be viewed in isolation from the broader political reality, as the history of sports boycotts and other boycotts against the South African apartheid regime has taught us in particular.
In our view, sports should not be used to create an image of normality while the most serious violations of human rights and international law are being committed and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. Otherwise, we would not only be harming Palestinians, but also contributing to a world order in which might makes right and in which international law and universal human rights principles are completely buried.
The broader context must also be taken into account
The match is taking place against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli state-backed settler violence and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and Israel’s underlying decades-long apartheid regime.
The Netherlands is a party to the Genocide Convention and, as a State Party, bears the responsibility to prevent genocide. As the host country of both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court, we have an even greater responsibility to do so. We are not asking you, as mayor, to form an independent legal judgment on the situation in Gaza, but we do ask that you not ignore the rulings of the International Court of Justice, the resulting obligations to prevent genocide and end all complicity in Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid, as well as the broader international and social context.
Furthermore, we cannot ignore the fact that allowing teams representing Israel to continue participating in international soccer while acts of violence against Palestinians continue contributes to Israel’s impunity and undermines international law itself.
Our request:
- To prevent the AZ–Hapoel Be’er Sheva match on October 15 from taking place in Alkmaar by revoking the event permit, issuing an emergency order, or taking any other appropriate legal measure;
- To give serious consideration to public safety, social tensions, and the necessary allocation of public resources, in addition to the city’s legal and moral obligations;
- To explicitly include the decision of the mayor of Leuven in your assessment;
- Take into account the announced and expected peaceful protests, as well as the broader social, international, and international legal context, in your decision-making.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
On behalf of the BDS Netherlands,
Nadia Slimi
Chair