Those Amsterdam Anti-Semitism Reports and the Serious Need for Professional and Accurate Journalism

A free press and good-quality press is a necessity for democratic government to function well. This means that liberal democracies need legal structures to prevent excessive control of the news by governments and ruling parties and economic oligarchies.

Viktor Orbán’s Hungary is a model case of how a liberal democracy has failed in that essential elements of democratic governance. But every situation has its particular aspects, as well. But oligarchic ownership is also a factor in the US, e.g., Jeff Bezos’ ownership of the Washington Post. Amazon, the company Bezos founded and for which he is still the executive chairperson, has large contracts with the US government.From 2022:

Not only is Amazon a preferred vendor for agencies across the federal government, but just in the past week the National Security Agency re-awarded a $10 billion contract to Amazon Web Services for cloud computing. The brother of Biden’s top aide Steve Ricchetti is a lobbyist with a contract to work for Amazon.

That contract comes on top of 26 other federal cloud computing contracts with the U.S. Army and Air Force; the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Interior; the U.S. Census Bureau; and numerous other agencies. …

… [Sen. Bernie] Sanders has been trying to block another $10 billion NASA contract for a new moon landing, presumed to be earmarked for Blue Origin, the space company owned by Amazon founder and former CEO Bezos. (1)

But journalistic professionalism, a commitment to responsible reporting, providing adequate context are also important. The reporting on violence in Amsterdam following a recent soccer match provides a dramatic example of why that is important: (2)

Owen Jones has published several reports on the controversy, including this one: (3)

Mehdi Hasan also reports on it for his Zeteo channel: (4)

Antisemitism is a serious problem and needs to be reported accurately.

It’s not hard to believe that some of the reactions to the Israeli soccer hooligans included anti-Semitism. But the provocations also were not something that popped up after the soccer match:

Tensions began in Amsterdam when thousands of Israeli fans, some of them soldiers or reservists in the Israeli army, arrived for the Maccabi Tel Aviv vs. Ajax match on Thursday evening, 7 November. They are not your typical sports fan, as they are exclusively male and divided into fascist groups such as the Maccabi Fanatics, as evidenced by their chants, slogans and posters. Since the middle of the week, they have been harassing peaceful demonstrations showing solidarity with Palestine across Amsterdam and have begun threatening Dutch taxi drivers of Arab and Muslim backgrounds. The Israeli fans have been clearly aggressive, threatening passersby and those filming their violent behaviour with iron bars, and there have been reports of provocations and attacks, particularly against taxi drivers. Palestinian flags hanging from some windows in the city were the target of their vandalism, and video clips showed some of them climbing walls in an unexpected manner in Amsterdam, tearing down the flags and ripping them.

The Maccabi Fanatics group organised provocative gatherings and fascist marches during their presence in Amsterdam, especially on Wednesday and Thursday (6 and 7 November), such as in the central Dam Square, during which signs were raised glorifying the Israeli occupation army and supporting the war it has been waging for a year on the Gaza Strip. Maccabi fans stuck a huge number of posters bearing fascist symbols in the name of their various groups on poles and walls in the heart of the Dutch city, and insulted those who objected to their expressions, as documented by video footage.

The city’s roads and means of transportation were crowded with Israeli fans who continued to chant slogans praising the Israeli army, supporting the ongoing brutal war, and openly celebrating the killing of children in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the disgusting racist chants against the Palestinian people and Arabs, in general. These themes were repeated relentlessly in the lyrics of the Maccabi Fanatics fan anthem, a fascist anthem filled with very aggressive and offensive words, the lyrics of which are published in Hebrew on the group’s websites. The fact that this anthem was sung on the streets, in the subway stations and even in the stadium, is shocking by all standards, and this was done before the eyes of UEFA officials and delegates and Dutch police officers, of course. Due to the lyrics of the fascist anthem being in Hebrew, the fans sometimes made sure to say parts of it in English as well, sometimes using it as offensive insults. (5)

Middle East Eye reported:

Israeli far-right ultras are notorious for anti-Palestinian verbal and physical violence.

In March, travelling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans brutally beat a man who was carrying a Palestinian flag in Athens ahead of their team's match against Greek team Olympiacos.

Earlier this year, rights group FairSquare had written to Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin and criticised the European footballing body of “double standards” for excluding Russian teams from its competitions since February 2022 but refusing to rule out making a similar move against Israel.

Nicholas McGeehan, who is a founder of FairSquare, highlighted the track record of racist chanting by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and criticised how Dutch authorities painted them as "innocent victims of antisemitism."

“Israel’s most senior leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have openly courted far-right football supporters in Israel and have received their violent support in return. The well-documented racism and violence exhibited by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam mirrors the thuggery of the Israeli government in Gaza and Lebanon,” McGeehan told MEE. (6)

Em Hilton points to a significant risk in carelessly portraying such events as “pogroms”:

Social media [after the Amsterdam incidents] was awash with the crassest parallels imaginable — including memes of Anne Frank wearing a Maccabi Tel Aviv shirt — taking the debasement of the memory of Jews’ persecution at the hands of the Nazis and their allies to new levels. How darkly ironic that these events overshadowed the actual anniversary of the Kristallnacht, at a time when the consequences of racist, state-backed violence feel so relevant.

In the wake of October 7, scholars of antisemitism, genocide, and Jewish history have warned of the ways that particularly traumatic episodes in Jewish history have been evoked to justify Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and crack down on those who criticize it. As antisemitism scholar Brendan McGeever articulated clearly, despite being brutal and disturbing, the incident in Amsterdam was no pogrom — the term for an attack on an oppressed group with the backing of the authorities. The proliferation of this term and others like it in the aftermath of the violence only served to obfuscate the reality of those events through creating mass hysteria. ...

There are myriad cases from the past year in which European nationalism has been invoked to align the fight against antisemitism with a xenophobic, anti-immigrant agenda. In France, for example, the inaugural “March Against Antisemitism and for the Republic” was spearheaded by National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, who was subsequently successful in pushing the current French government to pass draconian anti-immigration legislation that specifically targets people of color. Once persecuted as enemies of the state, Jews have now been transformed into a model minority in whose name France is excluding and attacking Muslim communities.

From [Israel’s] Netanyahu and [the Netherlands’s Geert] Wilders to [the UK’s Tommy] Robinson and [France’s Marine] Le Pen, it is in the interest of far-right leaders everywhere to enlist Jews as foot soldiers in their war on those they most despise. As they increasingly work to blur the line between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, we must resist this conflation while also standing with Jewish communities against the very real threat that unchecked antisemitism poses. [my emphasis] (7)

Gideon Levy, a longtime critic of the Israeli occupation and now of Israel’s current war(s), looks at how the Amsterdam events were integrated by some Israeli commentators and politicians into an Israeli rightwing narrative and the toxic distortions it produces:

That's how it is when you live in the warm, cozy bubble, completely disconnected from reality, in complete denial, that the Israeli media builds for us: We are always the victims and the only victims; there was a massacre only on October 7; all of Gaza is to blame; all of the Arabs are bloodthirsty; all of Europe is antisemitic. Do you have any doubt? See Kristallnacht in Amsterdam.

And now for the facts: In Amsterdam, some of the Israeli fans rampaged in the streets even before the pogrom: disgusting, shouted chants of "We'll screw the Arabs" (in Hebrew) and the removal of a Palestinian flag legitimately hanging from the balcony of a building were almost never shown in the Israeli media, which could spoil the image of antisemitism. No one asked the first question that the sight of the violence and hatred in Amsterdam should have raised: Why do they hate us so much? No, it's not because we are Jews.

Not that there isn't antisemitism: Of course there is, and it must be fought, but the attempt to pin everything on it is ridiculous and mendacious. An anti-Israeli wind blew in Amsterdam Thursday, and that's what ignited the [so-called] pogrom. The North African immigrants, the Arabs and the Dutch people who rioted saw the horrors in Gaza over the past year. They are not willing to remain silent about them. (8)

Notes:

(1) Facundo, Jarod (2022): Bernie Sanders Puts Amazon’s Billions in Federal Contracts at Risk. The American Prospect 05/06/2022. <https://prospect.org/power/bernie-sanders-puts-amazons-billions-in-federal-contracts-at-risk/> (Accessed: 2024-16-11).

(2) International media accused of skewing and lying in coverage of Amsterdam riots. FRANCE 24 YouTube channel 11/15/2024. <https://youtu.be/z8E9gPM-pkY?si=eQKW3d4JaZJ4m_n2> (Accessed: 2024-16-11).

(3) Witness To Israeli Hooligan Rampage Exposes How Media LIED About Her Footage. Owen Jones YouTube channel 11/12/2024. <https://youtu.be/2HFM_V1rnPA?si=1oybpWTR7-Q-MeLm> (Accessed: 2024-16-11).

(4) Israeli Soccer Attacks: Amsterdam Photographer on What Really Happened. Zeteo YouTube Channel 11/13/2024. <https://youtu.be/ZjoQkPXA_us?si=Sw7NphZXISi4ea2C> (Accessed: 2024-16-11).

(5) Shaker, Hossam (2024): Why should Europe be concerned about the events in Amsterdam? Middle East Monitor 11/11/2024. <https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241111-why-should-europe-be-concerned-about-the-events-in-amsterdam/> (Accessed: 2024-16-11). Juan Cole’s Informed Comment site states, “Middle East Monitor is a not-for-profit press monitoring organization... The editorial line straddles the British left and the British Muslim religious Right.”

(6) Fayyad, Huthifa & Ullah, Areeb (2024): Israeli hooligans provoke clashes in Amsterdam after chanting anti-Palestinian slogans. Middle East Eye 11/08/20204. <https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-hooligans-provoke-clashes-amsterdam-after-chanting-anti-palestinian-slogans> (Accessed: 2024-16-11).

(7) Hilton, Em (2024): Weaponizing Jewish fear, from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam. +972 Magazine 11/15/2024. <https://www.972mag.com/amsterdam-maccabi-tel-aviv-antisemitism/> (Accessed: 2024-16-11).

(8) Levy, Gideon (2024): The Amsterdam Attack Shows Israelis' Denial of the Reality They Created. Haaretz 11/10/2024. <https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-11-10/ty-article-opinion/.premium/from-amsterdam-to-the-hawara-pogroms-are-wrong/00000193-128f-d304-a3db-16ff60fb0000?gift=dce43da2993b4f89a1fd52e53ea21b79> (Accessed: 2024-16-11).