Maccabi in Amsterdam: Media at the Service of Disinformation

Two weeks after the acts of violence on the sidelines of the game between the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax, in Amsterdam, on November 7th, there are those who continue to battle to correct the facts, accusing main media outlets of having distorted the events to get in step with the Israeli narrative. Dutch photographer Annet de Graaf, whose footage of the incidents was published in the hours that followed by several mainstream media outlets, saw her videos used to say the opposite of what they showed. “I filmed acts of violence by Maccabi fans that took place before my eyes, but the journalists, who were not there, not only insinuated that I was mistaken but also altered my testimony to make the Israeli hooligans the victims,” says Annet.

She has already received apologies from a number of Dutch and international media, but says she will not rest until news that distorted her images will be corrected and the media in question recant themselves before the public.

The media coverage of the Amsterdam incidents is a perfect illustration of the famous quote from Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist in the early months of Donald Trump’s first administration: “The way to deal with the media is to flood the area with shit.”

It were not the main Dutch media that pointed out as motivation for acts of violence against Israeli hooligans an alleged hatred of Jews on the part of the Dutch population of Arab, Muslim and immigrant origin. This frame came from Israel and was quickly adopted by pro-Israel media outlets and politicians in the US, Europe and the Netherlands. However, the most prominent media outlets did not question the Israeli framework nor the echo given to it by the political class. In some cases, they supported the wave of disinformation, actively participating in the strategy that aimed to flood them.

“In my images you can see Maccabi fans kicking a young Dutchman,” highlights Annet de Graaf, adding that she has contacted the media who wrote that the video shows Dutch people attacking fans of the Israeli club demanding that they write the true. “Journalism has a duty to investigate the facts, it is unacceptable for journalists to sow disinformation.”

Space was thus created in politics and on social media to demonize citizens of Arab and Muslim origin and prepare far-reaching repressive measures that the House of Representatives discussed on November 13, such as revoking Dutch citizenship for dual citizenship holders who have committed anti-Semitic crimes.

Annet says that during the clashes, only she and the young Dutch YouTuber Ome Bender were on the scene. “There were no other journalists,” she says. “Not even police forces, which surprised me a lot. There was a police car, which as you see in Bender’s video did not stop as it passed the Maccabi fans when they were attacking the young Dutchman lying on the ground.”

The Dutch photographer says she has not yet received complete clarification from Reuters regarding the fact that they changed the account she gave them of what she saw. And either an apology from the New York Times.

“Dutch public media failed and thus lost credibility, which has very negative consequences for democracy,” warns Marloes, editor at a Dutch publication. And she says that the day after the incidents, public television interviewed several people at the municipal headquarters where she was to correct accusations made against pro-Palestinian activists, but “did not broadcast any excerpt from the interviews that refuted the narrative that had been circulated.”

A narrative that Amsterdam Mayor, Femke Halsema, broke on Sunday when she acknowledged that she should not have used the term “pogrom” to describe the violence that occurred after the game. “We were completely taken by surprise by Israel,” Halsema told Dutch broadcaster NPO. “At 3 a.m., Prime Minister Netanyahu was already giving a talk about what happened in Amsterdam, while we were still gathering the facts.”

Haselma’s confession of deceit did not please Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, who labeled it “totally unacceptable.”

On the night of the game, Maccabi hooligans chanted slogans in Hebrew on the streets of Amsterdam. Yuval Gal, founder of the Jewish anti-Zionist movement Erev Rav, says he has had several requests for translation.

The Jewish activist notes that “among Maccabi’s supporters were many Israeli soldiers who have committed war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.” In Amsterdam they sang “Let the Israeli army win and fuck the Arabs!” and “Why are there no schools in Gaza? Because there are no more children there.”

The Israeli propaganda machine acted with great swiftness to impose their narrative, underlines Gal, adding that before the parliamentary debate on the incidents in Amsterdam the Israeli government sent politicians a 27-page document that accused Dutch organizations of links to the Palestinian militant organization Hamas.

Is there antisemitism in the Netherlands? “We live in a society where there is anti-Semitism, largely based on stereotypes that continue to exist,” he admits. “But I don’t know of any case of violence outside the context of Maccabi’s arrival.”

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