(Article by Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed republished from TheGrayzone.com)

A November 8 video report by a 16-year-old who publishes YouTube reports under the moniker “Bender” provided extensive on-the-ground footage of a mob of armed Tel Aviv Maccabi ultras hunting victims, throwing metal poles at police vehicles, threatening journalists, and even being detained after attacking undercover police officers.

While Western corporate media, US President Joe Biden and the Dutch government have faithfully echoed the Israeli propaganda narrative that the Maccabi ultras were innocent victims of an antisemitic “pogrom,” no mainstream media outlet has reported to date that the Israeli football hooligans attacked police vehicles and undercover officers, in addition to their assaults on Muslim taxi drivers and other Dutch citizens.

In a statement to The Grayzone, Amsterdam police spokesperson Eline Roovers refused to discuss the documented attacks by Israeli thugs on Dutch police officers and vehicles. “We cannot comment on ongoing investigations, which means we are not able to answer questions related to this now,” Roovers stated, referring us instead to a press conference by Police Chief Peter Holla.

In his statement to the press, Holla acknowledged that “a [Palestinian] flag was taken down by Maccabi supporters,” who also “vandalized a cab.” On Amsterdam’s Dam Square, he said, “a Palestinian flag was set on fire.”

The Dutch police said 5 people were hospitalized during the Nov. 7 mayhem, and 30 suffered more minor injuries.

Effectively confirming the Israeli hooligans as the source of the violence in Amsterdam, Holla stated, “peace [returned]” only after Maccabi supporters were “accompanied by the police back to their hotels with the use of buses.”

However, the police chief’s comments evinced heavy political bias in favor of the very element that instigated the violence: “I can imagine that Israelis feel unsafe,” he said. “As mentioned before, their well-being is our top priority.”

Israeli hooligans caught on camera attacking cops in Amsterdam

On November 7, Maccabi Tel Aviv ultras engaged in violent clashes with those of the local Ajax football club. The fighting followed a night in which Israeli football hooligans destroyed a taxi cab with a Muslim driver, tore Palestinian flags from private Dutch homes and burned them, chanted in support of the genocide of Palestinian children, and attacked any local resident displaying pro-Palestine sympathies.

Maccabi Tel Aviv hooligans carry a reputation for assaulting leftists and Palestinian citizens in their own country. Following a Tel Aviv Maccabi match in Athens, Greece this March, the club’s ultras surrounded a lone Egyptian man and brutalized him so badly he was hospitalized.

A mob of Israeli thugs (fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv) attack a Palestinian in ATHENS, GREECE!

Zionism is a scourge.pic.twitter.com/6uRvxl1ggm

— Jalal #CeasefireNow (@JalalAK_jojo) March 7, 2024

“We know Maccabi fans, they already had a reputation. Even in Israel they stand out,” Yuval Gal, a member of the Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist collective known as Erev Rav, told the Dutch journalist Left Laser. “We know many of them are soldiers and ex-soldiers in Gaza right now. I also tried to explain this to the police. I said, ‘Look, if somebody just came back from Gaza, and just came back from killing a lot of people, you don’t expect them to act normally in your city.’”

Indeed, many of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Ultras were confirmed as reservists in the Israeli military who had participated in the assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. And they were escorted to Amsterdam by agents from Israel’s Mossad intelligence and assassination agency.

Several Dutch citizens told Left Laser they were assaulted by Maccabi hooligans the day before their November 7 match in Amsterdam. “Every time somebody with a Palestinian symbol walked by,” one local resident said, “they did something pretty violent. Middle fingers, also physical violence.”

Another Dutch citizen said he was randomly assaulted by the Israeli thugs, who spit on him and doused him with beer: “I don’t like aggressiveness in my city. Amsterdam has always been a tolerant city towards others, but when a group so aggressively comes in, it made me not feel at home any more.”

Local Amsterdam residents tell @LeftLaser how they were assaulted and menaced by Tel Maccabi hooligans hunting for anyone displaying pro-Palestine symbols

Why should decent people have to put up with a hostile invasion of foreign Zionist goon squad members? pic.twitter.com/lZLzq6a1oB

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 11, 2024

Bender’s YouTube report provided clear documentation of the well-organized mob of Israeli hooligans roving around central Amsterdam on November 7, gathering metal pipes and wooden clubs as they hunted for victims with apparent permission from local Amsterdam authorities.

Early into the foreign goon squad’s rampage, Bender filmed them hurling weapons at a passing police van.

“Oh, metal poles are being thrown at a police car!” the YouTuber exclaimed. “They took the metal pipes from this construction site and started throwing them at people and police vans.”

“As usual,” Bender remarked, “we are the only media present right now!”

The Maccabi hooligans were clearly unhappy with the scrappy reporter’s presence. They can be seen repeatedly giving him the middle finger while hurling rocks at him and his cameraman. At one point, multiple Israeli thugs approach the teenager in an attempt to intimidate him, demanding he “put away the camera.” When Bender and his colleague responded that they were members of the media, the Israeli assailants ordered them: “stop… for your [own] safety.”

Read more at: TheGrayzone.com