The Big Lie: From Amsterdam to Birmingham
How “The Big Lie” was used to banMaccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a football match in Birmingham.
In November 2024, five supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv were hospitalized after what Dutch authorities described as “hit-and-run assaults” by men on scooters and motorcycles through central Amsterdam. As the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, acknowledged:
“Men on scooters criss-crossed the city looking for Israeli football fans. It was a hit and run. I can easily understand that this brings back memories of pogroms.”—The Guardian, Nov 8 2024
The public prosecutor’s office later confirmed that attackers had used WhatsApp and Telegram groups to coordinate their movements, referencing a “Jew hunt.” Despite this evidence of pre-planned, targeted antisemitic violence, much of the Western press framed the event as a “fan clash.” Victims of a pogrom were recast as its provocateurs.
The Evidence the Media Ignored
Dutch police and witness testimony made clear that Israeli fans did not initiate the violence.
“Supporters of Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv were targeted for beatings by groups of thugs… local pro-Palestinian groups called for a demonstration before the game… but the major threat proved to be small, highly mobile groups of attackers with no obvious club allegiance.”—Reuters, Nov 9 2024
Mayor Halsema later warned that Jewish life in the city had been “deeply threatened” and that she hoped never again to see such an outburst of antisemitism. But under political pressure she withdrew the word “pogrom,” revealing Europe’s continuing discomfort with naming antisemitism for what it is.
Dutch reporting confirms premeditation
According to The Jerusalem Post, citing the Dutch daily De Telegraaf, the violence was organized well before kickoff.
“An alleged ‘Jew hunt’ was announced well in advance in the messaging app Telegram, prompting rioters to travel from far outside Amsterdam to attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Jewish people.”—Jerusalem Post, Nov 8 2024
The paper added that “violent attacks… were likely to have been a result of a pre-planned attack against Jews organized in a Telegram group.” Several taxi drivers were reported to have taken part, arriving downtown to target Israelis. One Israeli was thrown into a canal; others hid inside the Holland Casino. An internal casino investigation later revealed that a hired security guard had been active in one of the Telegram groups coordinating the assaults.
This is not the profile of a riot. It is the anatomy of a modern pogrom—organized, deliberate, and ideologically motivated.
how the Story was Rewritten
Early clips of Maccabi fans burning a Palestinian flag or chanting anti-Arab slogans the night before the match were real, but separate from the next day’s orchestrated violence. Nevertheless, nine major outlets—including Al Jazeera, The Guardian, BBC News, Sky News, CNN, Middle East Eye, The National (UAE), Deutsche Welle, and Bild—focused on those provocations while downplaying the pre-planning documented by Dutch police.
By the time corrections appeared, the narrative was fixed: Israelis as aggressors, their attackers as “locals reacting.”
The moral inversion was complete. A pogrom had been repackaged as mutual fan violence.
When Misinformation Becomes Policy
In October 2025, Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group banned Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending their Europa League match against Aston Villa, citing “high risk” and referencing the Amsterdam precedent.
“Any decision or recommendation is ultimately a matter for operational policing judgment… based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate-crime offences that occurred during the 2024 match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.”—West Midlands Police statement, The Guardian, Oct 16 2025
Officials never revisited the facts; they accepted the false framing. The result was collective punishment of those who had been hunted in Amsterdam.
The Courtroom Version
A month after the attacks, Dutch prosecutors opened the first trial for seven suspects, including a Gazan man charged with attempted murder. In court, prosecutors declared:
“In this case, there was no evidence… and the violence was not motivated by antisemitic sentiment. The violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza, not by antisemitism.”—Times of Israel, Dec 11 2024
That claim defies the record. Hundreds of social-media posts explicitly called for a “Jew hunt”. Victims were chosen for wearing yellow-blue Maccabi gear or Israeli symbols. To deny antisemitic motive is to deny meaning. It is the legal analogue of the media’s “both-sides” instinct—a bureaucratic cleansing of antisemitism from an antisemitic act.
The Cost of Moral Relativism
When antisemitic violence is rebranded as hooliganism, victims become suspects and perpetrators become faceless. The ideology that fueled the attacks is buried beneath euphemism. The result is not merely misreporting; it is moral corrosion. It teaches that Jewish suffering is conditional, explainable, even deserved, and it trains institutions to treat antisemitism as a matter of crowd control rather than conscience.
The facts are beyond dispute: Dutch and Israeli sources confirm the violence in Amsterdam was premeditated, coordinated through Telegram, and openly antisemitic. The credibility of that record rests on official investigations and eyewitness accounts, not on advocacy. What diverged was the narrative—softened, blurred, and ultimately inverted.
When framing fails, justice fails with it.
The Big Lie: Amsterdam Edition
The Amsterdam pogrom should have been a moment of reckoning for Europe’s unresolved antisemitism. Instead, it became a case study in intentional reframing — a deliberate effort to turn a hate crime into a headline about “Israeli hooligan violence.”
And now, Birmingham has cited “The Big Lie: Amsterdam Edition” to justify banning Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters. They say a lie can run around the world before the truth can put it socks on
When persecution is reframed as provocation, the safety of Jews becomes contingent on silence.
That is the real big lie.
And this time, it’s Amsterdam.
