'Fake news': Western media under fire for Amsterdam riot coverage

Western media outlets have come under fire from pro-Palestinian activists and journalists over their coverage of clashes in Amsterdam last week between locals and travelling Israeli football fans, with accusations of deliberate disinformation and inaccurate framing.

Dozens of people have been arrested after supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were attacked by Amsterdam locals on Thursday evening, although many say the provocative actions of the Israeli football fans before the clashes were erased from coverage in European media.

Sky News, one of the UK’s leading news outlets, initially published on a Saturday a more accurate description in video format on how the events unfolded in the Dutch capital.

The UK outlet titled the video as "Israeli football fans attacked in Amsterdam" included details of Israeli fans tearing down Palestinian flags hung from Amsterdam homes, as well as racist anti-Palestinian chants, such as "Let the IDF win, F*** Arabs", and "Death to Arabs" sung by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans prior to Thursday's UEFA Europa League clash against local side Ajax.

The reporter, Alice Porter, also made mention of the supporters disrupting a minute’s silence held in support of the Valencia flood victims - which some commentators say is due to Spain's pro-Palestine stance during the Gaza war - and showed verified footage of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attacking locals.

The video has since been re-edited and re-uploaded with a very different version of events, implying that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were attacked due to "antisemitic" motives.

The new title echoed statements made by several Western politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu, who labelled last week’s events as racially-aggravated, and failed to mention the acts of violence carried out by the Israeli football fans.

Sky News issued a statement on Saturday saying the previous production "did not meet its standards for balance and impartiality".

The re-edited video also failed to mention that Maccabi fans tore down Palestinian flags, and referred to them as just "men".

It included statements from several Dutch politicians condemning the events, as well as accounts from Maccabi fans, with one describing it as "the same feeling that I felt on October 7", in reference to the Hamas attacks on southern Israel that triggered Israel’s military campaign on the enclave.

The video also omitted a previous line which said: "Their [politicians] statement failed to mention the assaults by Israeli hooligans against Dutch citizens."

The re-editing of the footage has been criticised by the likes of academic Marc Owen Jones, an expert on media and online disinformation, who submitted a complaint to UK media watchdog Ofcom.

David Clark, a former Foreign Office adviser, called the re-edit "shameful" and an attempt to "sanitise the behaviour of Maccabi fans".

Journalist Owen Jones, called the move a "massive media scandal", describing the newest video as "totally different, which now qualifies as disinformation".

The BBC, German outlet Bild, and CNN are among those who have been accused of publishing inaccurate coverage of the events.

Dutch journalist Annet De Graaf accused the organisations of misusing her footage on the violence, which showed a mob of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans carrying planks of woods and "attacking Amsterdam citizens in front of Central Station after the game".

De Graaf demanded an apology from the outlets who used her clip and released a statement reading: "Journalism is about finding the truth. Not about making money on a twist of the script."

The BBC used the footage in one of its reports to imply that the Israeli fans were the ones being chased by groups of local men, when the clip was the other way round.

Another video, posted by Dutch teenage journalist known as 'Bender' on YouTube on Thursday, showed the same group being violent in the city.

The group of men reportedly told the teenager reporting the events to turn off his camera "for his own safety", which he refused to do.

Videos shared online also allegedly showed men, supposedly Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, attacking taxi drivers, who were predominantly of Moroccan and Arab descent.

The New Arab contacted both Sky News and BBC News for comment.

The Israeli fans behaviour prompted counter-attacks from the Dutch city's sizeable Moroccan community, as well as pro-Palestine protesters.

Upon their return from Amsterdam, the fans were seen singing similar anti-Arab chants as they did in the Netherlands at Ben-Gurion Airport on Friday.

Sixty-two people were arrested by Amsterdam police in connection with last week's violence, while Netherlands' authorities went on to arrest pro-Palestine activists on Sunday who defied a ban on Gaza protests in the Dutch capital.

At least 43,603 people have been killed in Gaza and 3,243 in Lebanon, since 7 October 2023, the vast majority civilians.