The “disgraceful” ban on Israeli fans attending a Europa League match at Aston Villa in Birmingham (Muslim population 30%), issued by the city council on Thursday, could be the spark that ignites a political powderkeg, says Oliver Brown in the Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt.
So now we have it spelt out in black and white: an admission by a British police force that it is effectively unable to protect visiting Jewish football fans on British soil. This is, however you slice it, a shaming moment. Only last weekend, within hours of the Gaza ceasefire coming into effect, huge amounts of police resources were diverted to protecting pro-Palestine marches in the heart of London, attended by tens of thousands. But as for ensuring the safety of a few hundred Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters on the streets of Birmingham? All too much bother.
It is a level of inconsistency that makes your head spin. On learning of the extraordinary move by West Midlands Police to advise the shutting out of Maccabi fans from next month’s Europa League match at Aston Villa, Baroness Fox lamented how she had “sat for hours in the House of Lords debating a new crime and policing bill that creates endless laws to ‘keep our streets safe’ – yet police won’t use the laws we have to keep certain people safe”. And all this on a day when the Prime Minister promised, in the aftermath of the Manchester synagogue atrocity, £10 million in extra security for Jewish amenities. Not for the first time on this subject, there appeared a vast gulf between rhetoric and reality. Reacting to the escalating furore, the Prime Minister criticised the police, saying an outright ban targeting Maccabi was the “wrong decision”.
This is the wrong decision.
We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets.
The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation.https://t.co/8aBeqE4qbA
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 16, 2025
The priority, you might think, should be to crack down on the virulent antisemitism that has rendered it dangerous for Israelis to attend matches in this country. Sadly, police have chosen a cruder response, simply banning Maccabi followers from coming at all. The explanation was that their action was based on “previous incidents”: none more serious than last year’s mayhem around Maccabi’s visit to Ajax, at which there were 62 arrests and five people sent to hospital. While some Maccabi fans chanted anti-Arab slogans and tore Palestinian flags down from buildings, Dutch authorities also described how antisemitic rioters had “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack”.
Where is the immediate provocation this time? Look no further than a video released last week by Birmingham-based cleric Asrar Rashid, handing down an “Islamic ruling” that “we will not show mercy to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans travelling for the Aston Villa match”.
British Islamic Scholar Asrar Rashid: We Will Not Show Mercy to Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans Traveling to Birmingham for the Aston Villa F.C. Match; If You Make a Deal with an IDF Soldier, Take His Money If You Win, But Do Not Pay Him If You Lose – That’s the Islamic Ruling… pic.twitter.com/KQU0VKkfVv
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 15, 2025
How is this not tantamount to incitement? If there are urgent public safety concerns around this fixture, then they have been triggered by the violent threats of Rashid and by a petition, co-signed by Jeremy Corbyn and Birmingham MP Ayoub Khan, claiming that the match could “not be tolerated as business as usual” because of the “ongoing genocide in Gaza”.
I welcome the news that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans will not be permitted to watch the match at Aston Villa! Well done to all those that signed our petition! pic.twitter.com/cRDtdDc7ad
— Ayoub Khan MP (@AyoubKhanMP) October 16, 2025
Khan was cock-a-hoop as the police caved in to such agitating, arguing that the reaction was “welcome”. He even had the gall to play the peacemaker, declaring: “Now is the time to ease tensions, set aside political differences, and focus on the football once more.” Truly, it is quite the flex to call for calm when you have just advocated banning all opposition supporters on the pretext that you do not much care for their country of origin. No wonder Khan was deluged with outraged questions about how his Jewish constituents would feel. Would he adopt such a brazenly discriminatory posture if there were Muslim fans involved?
If the city of Birmingham cannot guarantee safety for this one match, then you question its credentials to host future international events. Here you have an open concession by the police that they cannot control Villa’s clash with Maccabi, thus opening the door to potential lawbreakers. It is difficult to imagine how this does anything but give succour to men like Rashid, boasting about meting out merciless treatment to anybody in Maccabi colours.
This is a national disgrace.
How have things come to this?
Starmer pledged that Jews are welcome and safe in Britain. That he stands shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish community and will use the full force of his government to prove it.
Will he back those words with action… https://t.co/3gZ41UFWFv
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) October 16, 2025
You sense this is the spark that will ignite a political powderkeg. “Horrendous,” said Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader. “A national disgrace.” It is a struggle to characterise it as anything else: after all, a section of Britain’s second largest city has just been designated essentially as a no-go area for visiting Jews.
Worth reading in full
See Related Article Below
The Maccabi ban is the most shameful example of two-tier policing yet
As a former officer of the ‘thin blue line’, I scarcely recognise the institution I once served in
The news that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans are to be banned from attending Aston Villa’s Europa League match in Birmingham is perhaps the highest profile example yet of two-tier policing.
On Thursday afternoon West Midlands Police informed the local “Safety Advisory Group” that the football match had been classified as “high risk”. This apparently because of the possibility of protests at the match and the anti-Semitic abuse fans of the club received when they travelled to Amsterdam last year. As a result, the force said they had concerns about their ability to deal with potential incidents on the night.
No one is suggesting that these fans are the saints of the footballing universe. But there is a world of difference between taking steps to prevent violence between the supporters of two clubs and banning members of one club – who are overwhelmingly from one particular racial or religious group – from attending altogether because of the prospect of violence from those who hate that group. This is the thug-veto in action.
This case lays bare an ugly truth about British policing in 2025: the police have chosen to afford different rights to different groups. In this case, Israelis – or let’s not be coy about it: Jews – have yet again been relegated to second-class status. Can we really imagine the same would have happened if it were an event involving mainly Muslim supporters?
This decision comes on the back of two years of mass marches and protests where anti-Semitism – which is nothing less than hatred of Jews because they are Jews – has been on flagrant display. Many thousands have shouted the phrase “from the river to the sea” – a phrase which is essentially calling for the abolition of Israel and the elimination of the Jewish people. On at least one occasion an activist called for the “Al Aqsa Flood” (the Hamas codename for their terrorist atrocities in Israel) to turn into a “tsunami over the whole world”. Men have chanted on the streets for “jihad”. All apparently with the meek acquiescence by the police.
As is so often the case when it comes to police decision-making there has been a near total lack of transparency. The police are a core member of the local Safety Advisory Group who wrote to Aston Villa Football Club and UEFA to tell them that none of the away fans would be allowed into Villa Park. But who are the individuals who sit on the Group? Where are their minutes published? Dis anyone lobby the police and the Group in advance of the decision being made? Were any police staff networks consulted, and if so which ones? Were specific threats received, and if so what were they?
This is not the first time West Midlands Police has found themselves in the midst of a furore over two-tier policing. During last year’s riots a senior officer, in an interview with Sky News, defended the force’s choice not to robustly deal with individuals armed with weapons after consulting with “community leaders”, because the community would police “within themselves”. It has never become clear who those community leaders were, never mind what the details of their advice might have been.
Two years ago, few had heard of the term “two-tier policing” – and indeed police chiefs and government ministers have gone to great efforts over that time to vigorously deny even its existence. While Policy Exchange has written previously about two-tier policing in the realm of protest, the banning of this group of football fans demonstrates that other policing domains have been infected too.
This is a decision which cannot stand.
The Telegraph: continue reading
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