NYT kills ‘probe’ into Amsterdam violence unleashed by Israeli hooligans

The New York Times rejected an offer from one of its Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists to investigate the recent violence between Israeli and Dutch football fans in Amsterdam, ostensibly afraid of being exposed for its blatantly pro-Israeli narrative over the chain of events.

The NYT’s snub to the idea by Dutch reporter Christiaan Triebert came to light in an email shared with the news website Electronic Intifada. Triebert was awarded journalism’s most prestigious prize in 2020 for his groundbreaking work exposing civilian deaths in Syria.

The wave of violence that erupted on November 7 in Amsterdam saw supporters of the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv storming through the city, tearing down Palestinian flags on private property and chanting incendiary slogans after their team lost 5-0 to Dutch club Ajax on November 7.

The Times sparked criticism for portraying the events as primarily anti-Semitic attacks against Israeli fans, and ignoring evidence like social media videos of Maccabi supporters engaging in provocative behaviour, such as vandalising a taxi, burning a Palestinian flag and chanting slogans such as "Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there!”

The NYT’s framing of the violence as an “anti-Semitic attack” has been a point of controversy due to widespread criticism for providing a misrepresented account of events.

Triebert works on a visual investigations team described by the Times as blending traditional reporting with digital analysis to "find truth and hold the powerful to account."

His email was directed to Charlie Stadtlander, a senior manager at NYT, who previously served as a senior press officer for both the US Army and the National Security Agency, according to the report.

On his author page, he mentions the newspaper’s motto of reporting “without fear or favour,” a phrase he says reflects a commitment to reporting impartially and without bias, and states that he strives to uphold this principle in his daily work.

Ironically, however, his manager Stadtlander later claimed to Electronic Intifada that Triebert’s investigation was cancelled because some of its findings were incorporated into another article, titled “Chaos, Provocations and Violence: How Attacks on Israeli Soccer Fans Unfolded,” one of the many NYT reports downplaying the aggressive actions of Israeli hooligans during the incident.

An unclarified video was attached to the top of the New York Times’ 8 November report for several days, claiming to show Israeli fans being attacked.

However, the newspaper had to issue a correction on November 12, saying other verified footage from the scene confirmed that the video actually showed a group of Maccabi fans chasing a man on the street.

This led to many criticising the newspaper for ignoring the aggressive actions of Israeli fans and creating a misleading narrative.

Fierce backlash

Amid mounting reports from mainstream outlets presenting a similar narrative, Amsterdam's mayor, Femke Halsema, has walked back her earlier use of the term “pogrom” to describe the November 7 clashes involving Israeli hooligans and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

“If I had known it would be weaponised in this way, I would not have used that word,” she told Dutch broadcaster NPO on Sunday, expressing regret over how the term was misinterpreted.

Halsema took aim at Israel’s quick-fire reaction to the clashes, admitting her administration was blindsided by the international fallout.

“We were completely caught off guard by Israel,” she explained. “At 3 am, (Israeli) Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu was already giving a lecture about what happened in Amsterdam, while we were still gathering the facts.”

Halsema added that she was unaware of Maccabi fans’ reputation as ultra-nationalists.

“That information was not known to me,” she admitted. “The story of a racist club was never properly told to me.”

Since October 7, media outlets in the US and UK have faced growing criticism from experts and social media users for biased coverage that downplays allegations of genocide and favours the Israeli narrative.

The goal of this is to manufacture consent for Israel's genocide in Gaza and other Palestinian territories, Gretchen King, an associate professor of multimedia journalism and communication at the Lebanese American University (LAU), told TRT World in October. Israel’s genocidal invasion of Gaza since October has become its longest war since 1948, resulting in over 43,000 deaths in Gaza.

Thousands more remain trapped under the rubble, with the violence having spilled over to neighbouring Lebanon.