Discrimination wins on shameful night at Villa Park
A supposedly tolerant society allowed anti-Semitic messages to be expressed as pro-Israeli protesters were herded into a ‘Jew cage’
Long before darkness fell over Birmingham, a Jewish man, nervous about giving his name or revealing his full face for a photograph, opened his bag to show the small Israeli flag he had brought. In a heartbeat, the drivers of two passing cars wound down their windows to hurl abuse. A woman walking down the street was similarly vitriolic. “Scum,” she called him. “Get the f— out of my city.” A few seconds later, a West Midlands Police officer strode over to warn him against waving the flag in anyone’s presence. As for the anti-Semitic message pinned to the lamppost overhead – “If you see a Zionist, call the anti-terror hotline” – there was not a word of censure.
Once the sun went down, pro-Palestinian activists began assembling outside Villa Park’s Trinity Road Stand, insisting they were here for peaceful protest. After all, nothing conveys benevolent intentions quite like spending the next several hours screaming “From the river to the sea”, “Allahu Akbar” and “Death to the IDF”. “Aston welcomes everybody,” declared one preacher with a megaphone. Just not if you are Israeli, or if you display any sympathy for an Israeli football team. Then you are vilified as a “baby killer” and a “genocidal maniac”.
For a supposedly tolerant society, priding itself on resisting discrimination in all its forms, this was a draining, shaming evening. Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters had not even travelled officially for this Europa League date at Aston Villa, abandoning the idea when the local police force effectively admitted it could not guarantee their safety. But still the upsurge of anti-Semitic sentiment was evident in every direction, with the approaches to the stadium bedecked in such slogans as “Give Zionism the red card” and “Your pitch, your choice – boycott Israel”.
Police confirmed 11 had been arrested: a 21-year-old man for trying to throw fireworks into the ground, another 21-year-old man for failing to obey an order to remove his face mask, a 17-year-old boy for refusing to comply with a dispersal order, five people for racially-aggravated public order offences, and one person for a breach of the peace. The other arrests involved a 63-year-old man arrested for shouting racist abuse during a road rage incident, and a man detained on suspected drug offences. But this conveyed only a fraction of the chaotic scene outside, as Ashrar Rashid – the radical Birmingham-based cleric who had stoked tensions by handing down an “Islamic ruling” that “we will not show mercy to Maccabi fans” – turned up to double down on his venomous message.
“We should not have mercy, I meant what I said,” Rashid ranted. “The IDF killers, they are not welcome here today. Israel, your so-called state, how can you be a part of a European championship when you’re not even in Europe? What is known as Israel is not in Europe, it’s an admission from you that you are a European occupation of Middle Eastern land.” On and on this diatribe went, against a wall of Palestinian flags, with no official discouragement. And yet when one lady brought the flag of Israel into the midst of this melee, she was ushered away, surrounded by some of the 700 police drafted in for the occasion.
A few dozen Jewish demonstrators staged a march of their own from Witton railway station, under heavy police guard. A woman giving her name as Janine unfurled the olive-green flag of the Israel Defence Forces, saying she would “not be cowed”. Others carried banners asserting that “every fan should be welcome everywhere”. An indisputable idea, you might think. And yet this entire furore erupted when West Midlands Police indicated that the one group exempt from this philosophy were fans from Israel, whom it apparently could not protect on British soil.
The Telegraph: continue reading
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