DUTCH Prime Minister c has pulled out of the Cop29 talks beginning tomorrow in Amsterdam, citing violence involving the clashes between Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans and residents last week.

Far-right supporters of the Israeli football team rampaged through Amsterdam on Thursday night, tearing down Palestinian flags and chanting racist slogans including “Death to Arabs” and “Why are there no schools in Gaza? Because there are no children left.”

Local youths and taxi drivers, many of them Muslim, brawled with groups of the fans in response in what authorities say were anti-semitic attacks.

Mr Schoof, who heads a coalition government in which the largest partner is far-right Islamophobe Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, said urgent meetings were needed on cracking down on anti-semitism in the Netherlands.

Multiple world leaders have now said they will not be attending the Cop29 talks: US President Joe Biden is now transferring power to climate change denier Donald Trump, Germany’s Olaf Scholz is staying home because his coalition has collapsed and French President Emmanuel Macron cites poor relations with host country Azerbaijan following French criticism of its ethnic cleansing of the former Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia and China are also sending envoys to represent their leaders, meaning British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is the only head of government in the UN security council still planning to be there. 

Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape said he wasn’t going as it was a “waste of time,” saying he was sitting it out in protest on behalf of island nations receiving limited practical assistance from richer countries to cope with rising sea levels and worsening storms.

Amsterdam police arrested several people today for refusing to disperse from a Palestine solidarity demonstration. Mayor Femke Halsema banned all demonstrations over the weekend, citing Thursday's violence.