Sky Fall
IT’S BEEN a tumultuous few days for Sky News.
First it posted what many consider one of the most accurate accounts of the violence in Amsterdam on November 6 and 7.
Then it took it down, saying it did not meet the channel’s standards of balance and impartiality.
It was replaced with a re-edited version that corresponded with the message coming out of Jerusalem — the violence was an antisemitic attack on Israeli Jews.
But the cat was out of the bag.
Scores of ground-level accounts and videos emerged clearly showing that Israeli football hooligans started the violence.
Questions are now being asked about how Sky News got itself into this mess.
Under the spotlight is one of its news editors, Sandy Rashty.
“Fuck the Arabs”
LAST WEEK Sky News posted a video by its reporter Alice Porter on events in Amsterdam.
Her report detailed events before, during and after a Europa Cup game between the city’s Ajax and the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv on November 7.
The piece — 1 minute, 56 seconds long — reported violence by the Israeli team’s supporters.
It showed footage of Maccabi supporters tearing down Palestinian flags from local houses.
Before the game, it showed fans singing racist and anti-Arab songs including the line:
Let the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] win to fuck the Arabs
(The report did not include another line of the song which ran:
There are no schools in Gaza because the children are all dead.)
During the match, Maccabi’s fans disrupted the minute’s silence for the victims of the Valencia flooding with chants, whistles and fireworks.
After the match, the Sky News report showed footage of Maccabi supporters attacking locals.
People with Palestinian flags were also seen on the streets.
Alice Porter noted:
Israeli far right ultras are notorious for their racism and physical violence.
She ended by saying that some politicians were describing the violence as a “pogrom” against the Israelis visiting Amsterdam.
Within hours, the report had been withdrawn.
A new version was later re-broadcast along with the statement:
Editor’s Note stated: “This is a re-edit of a previous video which didn’t meet Sky News’ standards for balance and impartiality”.
The amended version — now expanded to 2 minutes, 53 seconds — changed the narrative from blaming Maccabi hooligans for the violence.
Now it was antisemites who were to blame.
Among the changes:
ADDED
— just after Alice Porter’s intro, a comment from Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, saying that it was “simply antisemitic violence against Israelis,” was inserted
— an interview with a Maccabi supporter was added. He said his experience left him with the “same feeling that I felt on the morning of October 7”.
AMENDED
— the original comment that “Maccabi fans were seen attacking locals as a police car can be seen driving by” was changed to “a video posted on social media shows a large group of hooded men dressed in black and striking people at random”.
REMOVED
— the statement that “Israeli far right ultras are notorious for their racism and physical violence” was dropped
— at the end of the report where some politicians said the violence was a pogrom, the following section of Sky’s commentary was removed:
… their statements fail to mention the assaults by Israeli hooligans against Dutch citizens.
This morning Press Gang asked Sky News to name the editor who added the note to the effect that Porter’s original report did not meet the channel’s “standards for balance and impartiality:.
There was no reply.
Pro-Israel Rashty
ONE OF the editors of Sky News is Sandy Rashty.
At 35 years old, she’s a high flier.
She attended the Jewish Free School in London and worked for the Jewish Chronicle before moving to Sky News.
She strongly identifies with Israel.
In a video discussion broadcast on You Tube in September 2023 — just two weeks before Hamas’ attack — she said “there was too much focus on Israel” in the media.
She then made a slip of the tongue. She asked:
Is it because we provide a disproportionate form of access?
Is it because we’re a … because Israel’s a democracy?
At the time of the Hamas attack October 7, she was on maternity leave.
In an article for the Jewish Chronicle, she said she’d been:
… planning on spending another few months switching off from the demands that come with feeding a 24-hour news platform. But how could I switch off from this?
As I watched videos emerge on social media and spoke to loved ones shielding in Israeli bomb shelters, I knew that the story would inevitably change the lives of so many British Jews. There was a story to tell about Israel and UK Jewry, and I knew how to help tell it. So I have gone back to work.
In a way, I am relieved to be back at work. Through this, we have filmed charity initiatives and spoken to business owners shutting their shops, turning their spaces into donation spots for Israelis going back to serve in the IDF.
We have filmed people coming to volunteer and pack suitcases with anything from thermals to British cereals, requested by soldiers on base.
This article — headlined “this is a difficult time to be a journalist” and published two weeks after the Hamas attack — made no mention of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
There was no mention of Palestinian casualties — by then the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Human Affairs had estimated that 3,478 Gazans had been killed by the Israeli Defence Forces.
In another Jewish Chronicle article, published on 11 June 2024, she reported on a fund-raising event for a disabilities charity called Beit Issie.
The charity “has now had to expand its services to supporting injured IDF soldiers and displaced Israeli citizens after the October 7 attack”.
There was no mention of the large number of Palestinians disabled by IDF operations in Gaza.
Rashty noted that speakers at the event were introduced:
… by former Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, who left his post in March after giving up to 10 interviews a day on international TV stations to advocate Israel’s position.
She did not mention that Levy had been sacked the previous March after a spat with then Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Cameron had called on Israel "to allow more [aid] trucks into Gaza”.
Levy hit back:
I hope you are also aware there are NO limits on the entry of food, water, medicine, or shelter equipment into Gaza, and in fact the crossings have EXCESS capacity. Test us. Send another 100 trucks a day … and we'll get them in.
The Foreign Office expressed “surprise” to Israel's foreign ministry and sought clarification on whether his tweets represented the Israeli government's official position.
Sandy Rashty’s Twitter account also shows a pro-Israel bias.
Press Gang asked Sky News if it was comfortable in having such an openly pro-Israel journalist as one of its news editors.
Again, there was no reply.
Correction
This article was amended to show that Sandy Rashty is only one of the editors at Sky News.
CORRECTIONS Please let us know if there are any mistakes in this article — they'll be corrected as soon as possible.
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Keep up the good work Paddy , best wishes Garan .
Great detective work Paddy