EXCLUSIVE: Dutch Photographer Reveals How the Media ‘Changed the Whole Narrative’ On Israeli Hooligans

When chaos erupted in Amsterdam between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax fans, photographer Annet de Graaf watched the violence unfold across the city first-hand. 

Her footage of Maccabi fans attacking a Dutch resident went viral, and was picked up by several media outlets, who then spun a different narrative that it was the Israelis being attacked.

Headlines poured in about antisemitic attacks in Amsterdam. But these stories largely overlooked on-camera, blatant, anti-Arab racism from Maccabi supporters.

In an exclusive interview, de Graaf tells Mehdi that outlets like CNN, BBC World News, and the New York Times “told the opposite of what happened in that footage.” She adds that they erased the responsibility of the Maccabi fans behind the attacks because “the truth is inconvenient.”

Watch the video above to hear how de Graaf witnessed the violence unfold and how she’s handling the fallout from the misuse of her footage — and the threats against her from the Islamophobic far right in the Netherlands.

For more on the Amsterdam rioting, and how it was misrepresented by the mainstream media, be sure to check out academic Marc Owen Jones’s latest piece for Zeteo: Innocent Israelis, Bad Arabs? How the Media Scripted Amsterdam's Soccer Violence

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