MEDIA DOWNPLAYS ISRAELI FANS’ BEHAVIOUR

The mainstream media’s reporting on the recent attacks on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam has been criticised not only for failing to provide the full context but also for its condemnation of a pogrom that never happened. While picking up American and European leaders’ allegation of anti-Semitism, outlets downplayed the behaviour of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in the lead-up to, and during, the match.

For example, Sky News retracted and re-edited a report posted on the network’s social-media pages that had depicted Israeli fans as instigators - alleging they’d shouted racist chants. This report had also noted that “Israeli far-right ultras are notorious for their racism and physical violence.” Meanwhile, Reuters used double standards when describing the abuse shouted by Israelis and Arabs - using ‘slurs’ in the one case, and simply ‘slogans’ in the other.

There are also accusations of ‘manufactured anti-Semitism’ - spread to justify alleged initial violence by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters. Some would argue that the flawed media coverage has only reinforced a supposed Israeli ‘monopoly’ on victimhood - one that some Israelis allegedly exploit to license bad behaviour in the streets of Amsterdam as well as in Gaza. (In July, British medical journal The Lancet reported Gaza's death toll could be over 186,000 and climbing, given Israel has not relented since the October 7 escalation of violence in the ongoing 76-year-old occupation.)