THE legacy media seems to have learnt no lesson from its debacle in the US presidential election, as its coverage based on its preconceived notions about the events in Amsterdam during a UEFA football fixture this week demonstrated.

The bulk of it continued to suggest that the presidential fight was neck and neck with a slight edge for Vice President Kamala Harris when the ground reality must have been very different, given the election result.

When street fighting broke out between Maccabi Tel Aviv-supporting football hooligans in the Netherlands capital for their team’s UEFA fixture against Ajax and those they attacked while there, from New York Times to the Guardian to the BBC many media outlets fell for the victimhood narrative Israel has successfully sold for decades.

Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany perpetrated the Holocaust, in which some five to six million Jews perished in the last century. It was undeniably a grave, unforgiveable crime against humanity. The Jewish people and many around the world vowed ‘Never again’. This was a just resolve.

The Amsterdam incident showed how many media outlets fell for the victimhood narrative Israel has successfully sold for decades.

But for the past 75 years it has also been used to justify the occupation of Palestine, expulsion, murder and imprisonment of Palestinians; anyone with a conscience who objects or protests against this is labelled ‘antisemitic’ and demonised and castigated as being a ‘Jew hater’. Any specific criticism provokes outrage and is dubbed........

© Dawn