A pro-Israel media watchdog is calling out Canada’s state broadcaster for publishing an article they say “minimized” the violent pogrom by anti-Israeli activists against Jewish soccer fans in Amsterdam.
The article, which was written by Reuters and published on CBC, referred to crowds of anti-Israel activists who hunted fans of the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer in an organized attack as “Dutch youth.” The article neglected to detail much of the violence and even quoted a spokesperson for Hamas, a listed terrorist organization, who warned that attacks were inevitable due to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
The headline published on the CBC differed from the one found on Reuters.
The CBC’s headline read, “Dutch PM ‘ashamed’ by Amsterdam attacks on Israeli soccer fans.” The original article, however, read, “Amsterdam bans protests after ‘antisemitic squads’ attack Israeli soccer fans.”
A spokesperson for the CBC did not answer True North’s question about why the state broadcaster decided to change the headline.
The CBC told True North that the perceived lack of appropriate balance in the article is due to the CBC’s complete coverage of all aspects of the stories it publishes.
“CBC News reports on stories with 360-degree context, helping the audience understand the facts and opinions driving any situation,” Chuck Thompson, the Head of Public Affairs at the CBC, said. “We are not part of this story, which we will continue to cover.”
However, a pro-Israel media watchdog says the state broadcaster’s coverage of the violent events does not capture what really happened on the ground.
“The headline is a grotesque inversion of reality, given that the pogroms were clearly orchestrated and organized well in advance,” said Mike Fegelman, the Executive director of HonestReporting Canada.
The article showed an image of the attackers and Maccabi soccer fans with the caption, “Israeli football supporters and Dutch youth clash near Amsterdam Central station on Friday in this image obtained from a social media video.”
Many Dutch locals have claimed online that the attackers were primarily Muslim and of Moroccan heritage. Anti-Israel activists allege that a Moroccan taxi driver was attacked by Maccabi fans the night before the attacks.
The article did not note incidents of Jews being forced to show their passports to prove they weren’t Israeli, being kicked on the ground by multiple men while laying still, chased and beaten in alleyways, hit by vehicles, hunted down in their hotels, or forced to jump into canals and told to say “Free Palestine.”
Though it did quote the Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, who said Maccabi fans were “attacked, abused, and pelted with fireworks by “antisemitic hit-and-run squads; explained that there were five soccer fans treated in the hospital, 20 to 30 people with light injuries and 62 suspects arrested.
The author describes one event of “a group of men running near Amsterdam central station, chasing and assaulting other men” without identifying who was attacking who.
“By sanitizing these Islamic terrorists, CBC is misleading the taxpayers and minimizing the deadly threat they pose,” Fegelman told True North.
Anti-Israel activists rioted again on Monday. One video on X shows the protestors shooting a firework which exploded inside the vehicle while they yelled, “Cancer Jews.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also came under fire for his response to the events in Amsterdam.
Singh posted on X that he strongly condemned the violence, saying nobody should be targeted based on their nationalist, religion, ethnicity or belief, but followed the statements by saying anti-Arab chants were wrong.
“Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Anti-Palestinian racism must be fought,” he said.
The NDP Leader was criticized by the Centre For Isreal and Jewish affairs for “both-siding” the anti-Jewish violence.
CIJA said instead of just “clearly condemning” the pre-organized pogrom against Jews, Singh “shifted the focus” from the antisemitic attack to talking about “Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism.”
“By “both-siding” this horrific act of anti-Jewish violence, Singh risks legitimizing similar attacks and paving the way for a pogrom to occur here at home,” CIJA posted to X. “Revolting.”