Sky News re-edited a video which clearly showed that Israeli Maccabi supporters started a riot and attacked locals who protested their provocations.
The initial footage, posted on the network’s social media, showed Israeli fans as instigators.
The clip explained the Israelis went on a racist rant, noting that “Israeli far-right ultras are notorious for their racism and use of physical violence.”
The network subsequently deleted the video and then posted a new version with the coverage of the Israeli's racist rant and their use of physical violence removed.
In an editor’s note, Sky News justified this by saying: “This is a re-edit of a previous video which didn’t meet Sky News’ standards for balance and impartiality.”
Before the match against Ajax, Maccabi fans also tore a Palestinian flag off a building facade in and chanted anti-Arab genocidal slogans celebrating the killing of children in Gaza on their way to the stadium.
A Dutch journalist who posted footage on the post-match clash between Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters and Amsterdam locals demanded Bild, CNN, BBC World, The Guardian, and The New York Times stop using her video out of context to distort what happened.
“Maccabi supporters attacked Amsterdam citizens in front of Central Station after the game.”
“Journalism is about finding truth. It’s time to show some respect to reality. That’s your job,” she added.
Those media outlets, among others, emphasized the attacks on Israeli fans, framing them "anti-Semitic" while ignoring or trivializing the Israeli riot and anti-Arab racism which instigated the clashes.
The New York Times wrote “Antisemitic Attacks Prompt Emergency Flights for Israeli Soccer Fans,” and “Chaos, Provocations and Violence: How Attacks on Israeli Soccer Fans Unfolded.”
Reuters titled its report on the events: "Amsterdam bans protests after 'antisemitic squads' attack Israeli soccer fans.”
BBC declared, "Jews attacked in Amsterdam: Israeli football fans attack in Amsterdam after Ajax vs Maccabi match."
Western media failed, for the most part, to inform the readers that the Maccabi Tel Aviv Ultras are notorious right-wing fanatics who taunt Arab and Palestinian players of their team.
Hours after the clashes in Amsterdam, Israeli ultras groups chanted racist slurs against Arabs again while burning the Palestinian and Dutch flags at a game in Jerusalem.
On Sunday, Amsterdam Police Chief Peter Holla admitted that Maccabi fans burned a Palestinian flag in Dam Square and vandalized a taxi.
Authorities in Amsterdam also stated that Israeli football fans provoked locals.
However, most Dutch officials concluded – without evidence – that the clashes in the streets of Amsterdam were an “anti-semitic pogrom.”
The authorities declared an emergency, banned demonstrations in the city, and mobilized additional police officers.
Dutch activists applied for an urgent permit to demonstrate in Amsterdam to protest against the "genocide in Gaza, but also because our right to protest has been taken away."
They were denied a permit.
On Sunday, pro-Palestinian locals defied the ban.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the city's Dam Square nevertheless, holding up placards that said "We want our streets back" and chanting "Free Palestine," an AFP correspondent said.
Police detained dozens.
A boy tells it all!
A 14-year-old Dutch journalist, Ome Bender, did what the mainstream media avoided doing consciously.
Bender provided - minute-by-minute, on-the-ground coverage of the events of the evening, which showed that the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv hooligans instigated the violence.
His footage showed the Israeli soccer fans gathering metal pipes, wooden clubs, and rocks in preparation for a riot.
They burned Palestinian flags, attacked taxi drivers, and chanted in celebration of the slaughter of children in Gaza.
At one point, an Israeli rioter threatens the young journalist to stop filming.
Amsterdam police did not intervene as the Israeli riot unfolded.
This earned no mention in the most Western press.
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, denounced Western bias towards Israel as evidenced by their lopsided coverage of the events in Amsterdam.
“The Amsterdam Police has set the record straight. The media needs to follow suit. To do otherwise is to dangerously gut antisemitism of any meaning, distort the facts, [relieve] Israel and Israelis from the possibility of accountability,” Albanese wrote on her X account.
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator attacked on the streets of Amsterdam after the Maccabi-Ajax match. AP
Albanese, an outspoken critic of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, added: “In Palestine, Israeli officials, soldiers, and settlers commit crimes against, blame, and smear Palestinians; elsewhere, they may provoke, incite, and vandalize and still get a free pass for every act of violence they commit or hide. Still, it is "other" communities into which they come who are blamed, smeared and arrested,” she said.
"In the West, Israel and Israelis can never be in the wrong."
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