Media gaslighting after the double thrashing of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam

Thursday’s Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam ended in not only the Israeli football team getting thrashed 5-0, but also saw their racist and violent fan base get a double thrashing on the streets of the Dutch capital notably by Moroccan and other Muslim Amsterdammers. This was after a series of provocative acts, which the occupation state, the Western media and politicians quickly sought to frame as an anti-Semitic “pogrom.”

Yet by the time these mainstream outlets published articles and reported on the incident in an attempt to gaslight the public into believing in the latest victimhood campaign orchestrated by Zionists, millions of social media users had already seen the inflammatory remarks including: “No schools in Gaza because there are no children left” and “Let the IDF win to f**k the Arabs.”

‘F*** Arabs’: Israeli football fans riot

‘Let the IDF win and f**k Arabs,’ Israeli football fans riot in the Dutch capital Amsterdam, tearing down Palestinian flags. Maccabi Haifa played Ajax last night, losing 5-0. Haifa fans then clashed with locals leading to violence.… pic.twitter.com/yJMGDHDboc

— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) November 8, 2024

Offensive actions also consisted of the removal of Palestinian flags from buildings, attacking a Dutch-Moroccan taxi driver and even the interruption of the one-minute’s silence ahead of the game for the victims of the Valencia flood.

One local councillor, Jazie Veldhuyzen, was quoted as saying: “They [Israeli fans] began attacking houses of people in Amsterdam with Palestinian flags, so that’s actually where the violence started.”

A 14 year old journalist, @OmeBender, did what the rest of the media refused to do, providing extensive on the ground footage of Israeli Maccabi hooligans instigating violence in Amsterdam. Bender shows the Zionist thug squad gathering metal pipes, wooden clubs, and rocks in… pic.twitter.com/yODdlFxvxr

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 9, 2024

The Western media’s coverage seemed to lose focus, equating some of Israel’s most extreme right-wing football ultras with victims of a “pogrom” and framing the event as an unprovoked attack on innocent Israeli football fans. This oversimplified narrative disregarded the provocations that led to the reaction, painting a misleading picture of the reality on the ground and whitewashing the behaviour of Israelis abroad.

Major news organisations have reported extensively on the violence that erupted in Amsterdam’s city centre following the match. The Financial Times described the incidents as “an outbreak of antisemitic ‘hit and run’ violence against Maccabi fans,” citing the city’s mayor.

The BBC faced criticism for its biassed coverage of the events and the language it used in its initial reports. Similarly, Sky Sports reported that “antisemitic rioters target[ed] Israeli football fans as disorder unfolds in Amsterdam”, focusing on the victimisation of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters. Meanwhile, in an act of self-censorship, Sky News deleted a post on X stating “Maccabi Tel Aviv fans tore down Palestinian flags and chanted racist anti-Arab slogans.”

Breaking: @SkyNews just deleted this video by their Amsterdam correspondent @AlicePorterTV posted to Twitter, without public explanation. I saved a copy.

The video explains the truth about the Israeli football hooligans who went on a racist rampage in the city this week. Watch: pic.twitter.com/saVATm74FO

— Asa Winstanley (@AsaWinstanley) November 9, 2024

Adding to the misleading narrative, several Western leaders were quick to condemn the violence, expressing solidarity with the Israeli fans and denouncing the actions as anti-Semitic.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “This is a dark moment for our world — and one we have seen before,” while French President Emmanuel Macron expressed: “The violence against Israeli citizens in Amsterdam recalls history’s darkest hours,” adding that “France will relentlessly continue to fight against heinous antisemitism.” Israeli leaders, President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their part labelled the events an “anti-Semitic pogrom” and “premeditated barbarity.”

Reports from the Jerusalem Post revealed that “along with Maccabi’s regular security personnel, Mossad agents would join the team in Amsterdam.” Indeed, the presence of Mossad agents alongside the hooligans suggests a level of state involvement or at least state awareness of the actions of these supporters. The fact that Mossad, Israel’s infamous intelligence agency, would accompany a group of racist hooligans from a state that already acts with impunity and disregard for international law further exposes the discrepancy between the mainstream coverage of these events and the more sinister reality.

Social media has also been rife with posts from Israeli occupation soldiers boasting that they would exact revenge for Amsterdam on women and children in Gaza, further proving their genocidal tendencies. This rhetoric is consistent with the behaviour of the Maccabi fans, who, unrepentant, were filmed chanting the same slogans at Tel Aviv airport following their government-backed rescue mission from Amsterdam – in dramatic fashion, the occupation state initially planned to send military planes to bring back the Mossad-Maccabi group, only for commercial planes to be sent instead.

Additionally, some Zionist accounts have taken to doxxing and threatening certain individuals allegedly participating in beating up the hooligans, only for it to backfire as with most of their propaganda tactics, with people praising these individuals as heroes.

🚨 Today, despite a ban on protests this week, Palestine solidarity groups gathered in Amsterdam, rallying for Palestine, Lebanon, and against the framing of the November 7th events as “antisemitic.”

“We refuse to let the charge of antisemitism be weaponized to suppress… pic.twitter.com/4kAhZC45kM

— Dr. Zain Abbadi (@ZainAbbadi11) November 10, 2024

Just as 7 October cannot be viewed in isolation, neither can “7 November.” The provocations by the government-supported Maccabi fans, including the desecration of Palestinian symbols and racist chants, were rightfully perceived as direct affronts of the identity of the city’s local Arab and Muslim community and the widespread solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

In addition to the scores arrested in relation to confronting the Israeli football hooligans, Amsterdam police arrested over 100 pro-Palestinian protestors yesterday, after they defied a ban on demonstrations put in place since the unrest.

What the “Battle of Amsterdam” and its aftermath has shown is that not only are the masses increasingly rejecting and sceptical of the weaponisation of anti-Semitism, but it has also demonstrated that Zionists are no longer safe wherever they are, especially when they arrogantly boast about genocide while perpetually playing the victim.

This was emphasised by senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri who said that the ongoing mass killing in Gaza by the occupation army, with a lack of international intervention to prevent it “is likely to lead to such spontaneous repercussions.”

Perhaps wisely, the club’s next Europa League fixture on 28 November against Istanbul-based Besiktas is set to be played in a “neutral country,” this was reported just days ahead of the Ajax match.  In a statement, the Turkish Football Federation said: “We wish success to our representative Beşiktas Gymnastics Club in the said competition, which will be played on a neutral field, against the possibility of the sport straying from its original spirit and being turned into an element of provocation and propaganda for the massacres committed by Israel in Palestine.”

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.