Pogrom: an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
—Oxford Languages Dictionary
Major news organizations with coverage around the world broadcast reports of Jewish football fans being hunted and beaten down in the streets of Amsterdam following a match involving the Israeli soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The reports drew condemnation from U.S. President Joe Biden, Israel, the Netherlands and other nations. France deployed thousands of officers in Paris in advance of another match showcasing the Macabi’s and declared anti-semitism would not be tolerated.
The problem is mainstream media coverage from CNN, the New York Times, the UK-based BBC, Sky News in the UK and other major networks in the United States was blatantly false.
Video deployed by these outlets showed men in dark clothing and hoods running through the streets beating and kicking people. News hosts like Jake Tapper on CNN declared that Jews were being attacked in the streets. They weren’t.
The video footage, again broadcast globally, was shot by Dutch photojournalist Annet de Graaf, and captured Maccabi soccer hooligans rampaging through streets and assaulting people. An Arab taxi driver was beaten and a Palestinian flag was torn down. Jewish fans weren’t victims, they were the aggressors and kicked off retaliatory skirmishes that followed initial clashes.
“We saw headlines about pogroms and world leaders denouncing antisemitism in Amsterdam as if these hooligans were just minding their own business as if this was an attack, not on Israeli soccer hooligans, but on all Dutch Jews. It wasn’t,” said Mehdi Hasan, of Zeteo, his news outlet on Substack. Formerly of MSNBC, he was fired because of coverage of the Israeli genocide.
Ms. De Graaf has called for an apology from media outlets, saying journalism is about finding and telling the truth.
“There were also reports of anti-Semitism, for example, calling for a Jew hunt, which is outrageous. It should be condemned. All violence on all sides should be condemned, but the media’s one-sided coverage painting Maccabi fans.
These well-known racist soccer hooligans, shouting genocidal, and anti-Arab slogans, painting them as the innocent victims has once again proven that our media and our political class deemed the suffering of Israelis to be more important than the suffering of Arabs,” he said.
“The attacks in Amsterdam didn’t occur in a vacuum, and this erasure of responsibility, this coddling of the Israeli far right, this misuse of words like antisemitism and pogrom and this blatant media bias make the racist violence we saw in Amsterdam, more likely, not less likely to happen again.”
“It was like a war on Twitter, let’s say X, and people framed my work, and of course that’s terrible because they told the opposite of what happened in that footage,” photographer De Graaf told Mr. Hassan, in a Nov. 12 interview. She was at the stadium to cover the football match but saw people gathering, sensed rising tension and followed Maccabi supporters for two hours.
The assaults started with a group of about 50 people, she recounted. She saw Maccabi supporters brutalizing people, attacking the Arab taxi driver, ripping down a Palestinian flag from the second story window of a home and attacking locals. That same footage, the truth, was twisted into lies about innocent Jews being targeted for their religion.
“It is really shocking. It’s unbelievable. I really think it’s very dangerous also for our city. We have a city with a large history, and I think the game, I think they didn’t have to invite the (Maccabi) supporters to our city. I think that’s a mistake,” said Ms. De Graaf.
According to the Open Society Foundation, Amsterdam’s Muslim population stands at about 12 percent, or some 90,000 people. Most Muslims in Amsterdam are of Moroccan and Turkish descent. Overall, there are about one million Muslims in the Netherlands, where they represent almost six percent of the country’s population.
Muslims and others have been active and vocal condemning the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, including holding regular demonstrations and criticizing government support for Israel.
There were calls from Muslim leaders for Maccabi fans, known for racism and violence, not to be allowed into the country. Those calls were ignored. So, violence was initiated by the Jewish soccer hooligans and it escalated. Could anything less be expected?
Violence against Arabs perpetrated by the Maccabi Tel-Aviv hooligans at the Europa League match was condemned by Canadian Muslims and Muslim Americans. “It has been deeply distressing and disturbing to witness the violence that took place in Amsterdam,” said the National Council of Canadian Muslims.
“The violence that ensued against any person is unacceptable, and those who assaulted people should face prison time. Islamophobia and anti-Semitism must always be fought.
“It is also alarming to see many Canadian leaders and commentators speak out about the issue without acknowledging attacks on Arabs in the streets of Amsterdam.
There is significant evidence showing that the violence began early in the day with Maccabi Tel-Aviv fans assaulting Arabs, burning objects and flags in the streets, yelling genocidal chants, and walking through the streets of Amsterdam, dragging Arab taxi drivers out of their vehicles and beating them.”
The group continued Nov. 8, “If Canadian leaders choose to weigh in on this issue, they must condemn the well-documented attacks on Arabs in Amsterdam by Maccabi Tel-Aviv fans over the last 24 hours, as well as the violent chants being espoused by those fans.”
“We strongly condemn the massive crowd of openly racist Israeli soccer hooligans who sparked violent clashes in Amsterdam by marching through the city chanting ‘Death to Arabs,’ attacking visibly Muslim and Arab residents, and vandalizing houses and businesses with Palestinian flags,”said National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
“As a Black man from Georgia, I know that it would be widely condemned if a group of white supremacists marched through downtown Atlanta chanting death to ‘n—s,’ attacking Black-owned businesses, and beating up Black residents.
I also know that no one would pretend that Black victims who defended themselves from White supremacist violence were racists who had suddenly decided to attack random White people.
“The violent brawls and attacks that occurred in Amsterdam are unacceptable. So is the false claim that Dutch Muslim and Arab residents of Amsterdam suddenly and randomly attacked Jewish people in a modern-day pogrom.
Media outlets must accurately report the facts on the ground, not repeat propaganda from the Israeli government or far-right politicians that reinforces xenophobic paranoia about Europe’s immigrant population.”
All of the lies are aimed at portraying Zionists and Israel as victims. No matter what evil they do, no matter how many people they kill, no matter how many lives they destroy, they are presented in mainstream media, politics and society as victims.
Such lies render whatever atrocities they commit justifiable. These lies have enjoyed power but ultimately lies are destroyed by truth. And we are living in the day and time of truth’s triumph.
—Naba’a Muhammad, editor in chief, The Final Call
