Dutch police hold suspect after kosher restaurant vandalism

 Police used pepper spray to subdue a suspect arrested Friday after a window was smashed at a kosher restaurant in the Dutch capital, the sixth act of vandalism at the restaurant in recent years.

An attacker used a stone to smash a hole in one of the large windows of the HaCarmel restaurant before pushing a flagpole with the Israeli flag through the hole.

Amsterdam police tweeted that they had arrested a suspect.

The attack came on the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces in Europe, although there was no immediate indication of a link.

The vandalism also came after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the coronavirus pandemic is unleashing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering.”

The U.N. chief said that “anti-foreigner sentiment has surged online and in the streets, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have spread, and COVID-19-related anti-Muslim attacks have occurred.”