Fact check: Amsterdam video doesn't show attack on Israelis

In the days after the riots following the soccer match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv, international media coverage of the event has been heavily criticized. A video published by a Dutch photographer on the X platform was rebroadcast by many media outlets — and misrepresented in the process.

On the night from Thursday to Friday in Amsterdam, Israeli fans clashed with locals and pro-Palestinian supporters during the Europa League match between Dutch first-division team Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv. According to police, riots broke out in several places in the city center, 62 people were arrested and five people were taken to hospital.

The attacks on Israeli fans in Amsterdam have caused international outrage. However, according to the police, Maccabi supporters had also previously rioted and provoked, burning Palestinian flags, among other acts.

To illustrate this, a video by Dutch photographer Annet De Graaf was used several times to show the acts of violence committed by Israeli fans. However, it was misrepresented by many major media outlets in their reporting. Many users shared and disseminated the viral posts with the same false claims, as seen here.

German media outlets such as the German broadcaster Tagesschau, the newspapers FAZ and Bild, and international media like the The Wall Street Journal, Channel 4, and BBC showed either parts of this video or screenshots.

Claim: "Israeli soccer fans were chased and beaten in Amsterdam in what Israeli and Dutch politicians called antisemitic attacks," wrote The Wall Street Journal in a headline found here.

The German newspaper Bild also used a screenshot from the video with the caption: "The hunt for Jews has broken out again: Arab mob chases soccer fans in Amsterdam."

DW Fact check: False

The video by De Graaf actually shows supporters of the Israeli soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv attacking locals around Amsterdam Central Station.

It, therefore, does not show pro-Palestinians chasing Israelis, as has been falsely claimed by several media outlets, but instead Israeli soccer fans attacking locals and pro-Palestinian soccer fans.

Another video by a young Dutch reporter, Ome Bender, supports De Graaf's version because it shows the same violent scenes from a different angle.

Many users have repeatedly pointed out the misuse of the images on social networks, as has  De Graaf herself. They explained that the perpetrators were Israeli, and not pro-Palestinian soccer fans.

In a viral post, De Graaf asked the media to classify her material correctly and issue an apology. A journalist from Tagesschau has already complied with this request. Tagesschau itself has issued a correction and edited the initial video and posted a new version online.

DW also did not initially categorize the images correctly, but has since published a correction under the post:

"We showed the clips marked with the watermark X/iAnnet in the wrong context. The author of the clip says she filmed Maccabi supporters who attacked Amsterdam citizens in front of Central Station after the game."

Other media have now also replaced or deleted the video sequences or published corrections.

The exact identity of the men in the video remains unclear. A spokeswoman for the Amsterdam police said in an interview with DW that the video taken by the Dutch photographer is the subject of an ongoing investigation. At present, the police cannot provide any information about the identity of the perpetrators seen in the video.

Edited by: Martin Kuebler