(NL Times) Dutch prosecutors have cleared Secretary of State Jurgen Nobel and Prime Minister Dick Schoof of criminal charges over controversial remarks made following violence at the Ajax-Maccabi soccer match in Amsterdam on November 7 last year.
Nobel, secretary of state for participation and integration, told Dutch broadcaster NOS that footage from the incident showed “Arab texts,” indicating that the youth involved were of Islamic and Arab backgrounds. He added, “Islamic youth largely do not endorse our norms and values.”
When journalists asked about Nobel’s remarks, Schoof expressed a similar view, later being accused of claiming that immigrants broadly lack integration. He then said in Parliament that he was referring only to a subset of youth who “have turned away from society.” He added, “To others, I say: no, that is not about you; I stand with the good who suffer under the bad.”
