WM police at fault for banning Israelis in Birmingham

Following on from Stuttgart, where MTA fans picked up a fine and a ban, it looks like the West Midlands police were right all along. Well done to them for resisting the political pressure.

MTA has been charged by UEFA after their fans were racist in Stuttgart.

Please tell me how this continued behaviour is actually just anti semitism?

https://x.com/robharris/status/2001344992636465446?s=46

This again. They didn't "attack muslim taxi drivers". Those taxi drivers had organised a pre planned "jew hunt" of maccabi fans. That's why some of them went to jail. Why do people continue to spread lies about this when the evidence is all out there.

Got a better source than this? As this is just what a guy on X is saying & he has a very obvious anti Israel agenda based on his other posts.

We don’t know who are the people setting fireworks off or who they are targeting or why without more reputable verification.

Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were seen firing fireworks at their manager’s apartment last night

https://x.com/i_ammukhtar/status/1995238175669956887?s=46

Presumably this was due to their recent poor form. Please explain why so many people are determined to defend this behaviour?

Other posters have explained here about the reputation of the travelling Israeli fans, so I’m not going to repeat, but, yes, a risk of violence to both the Villa fans and in the community. Plus if they had been allowed to travel and attend there would have been a huge risk of backlash within the community within Aston and more widely in Birmingham. I recall there was some trouble as it was. As I say, Birmingham has its own troubles aplenty, it doesn’t need any more being brought in from travelling football fans. Police are stretched enough. There are police having to patrol bin collections for heavens sake! Let alone little things like knife crime (sarcasm intended). It was absolutely the correct decision.

It is a slippery slope from saying Israeli fans aren't safe in Birmingham to Israelis aren't safe to Jews aren't safe. I think we deserve answers.

That's not what the police said. There was a significant risk of violence - not just to Israeli Maccabee fans, but from them. They have a track record of violence and disruption going back years. They whip up racial hatred and attack people they perceive to be Musim or pro-Palestinian.

In no way was it the police saying "we can't let Israeli people in Birmingham because the Brummies will harm them," like you're implying. It was "at a time of heightened feelings, it would be dangerous to let a group of violent football hooligans who chant anti-Arab racial hatred come over to stir up trouble."

Perfectly sensible, I'd have thought. If you don't want to be banned from matches, don't be a violent thug.

This was more about the fact the fans were Israeli than any perceived reputation of violence when we all know every football club in the world has its share of idiots.

No it wasn't.

You are sounding like you are trying to make a political point here rather than actually going on the police intelligence.
It isn't that uncommon for travelling fans to be banned.
Indeed, after the fans behaviour in between the announcement and the actual match, the fans rioted and caused all sorts of issues at another match, and the club itself made an announcement they would not take any tickets offered as they didn't want those fans traveling in their name.

Perhaps try basing your posts of facts rather than trying re-stir up trouble because of your own bias.

Does anyone remember the times the left said there were no no go areas in the UK?😂

They've had a reputation for thuggery for years.

In 2020 and 2021 they attacked anti-Netanyahu demonstrators in Israel with bottles and bats. There's been frequent violence between them and a rival Tel Aviv team.

Maccabee 'ultra' fans hospitalised a bloke in Athens for having a Palestinian flag in March '24. A match held in Italy was behind closed doors because of the risk of violence.

In Amsterdam they went to a squat where pro-Palestinian activists were living, ripped down the flags, tried to get in and chanted "Death to Arabs". They kicked in the door of a woman who had a "free Palestine" poster in a window. They attacked Muslim taxi drivers. They went through Amsterdam looking to start violence.

This was the night before the match.

Yes, there was disgraceful violence from Muslim taxi drivers and lads on scooters the next night. And also some more from the same 'ultras'.

The Maccabee 'ultras' shout chants about killing Arabs and raping Arab women - there is a lot of footage over recent months of this according to the police.

This isn't an antisemitism issue. It's a football hooligan issue.

What reputation? What was their reputation before Amsterdam?

What has the ethnic and faith background of people in the area got to do with a football match?

Who do you think needed protecting?

Where did you find information stating that? They’re not on any published list of dangerous football fans like other countries supporters are.

Do you think that attacks on them in Amsterdam were defensive then?

I think that given the reputation of the fans, the political situation with Israel and Palestine, and the ethnic and faith background of many people in the Aston area, it was the correct decision. There was a total recipe for trouble of some sort and I think that police have got enough to do. Policing that sort of event takes officers off the street, and Birmingham has crime enough, they are supposedly increasing police presence in the city centre following the murder of a woman waiting at a bus stop a couple of weeks ago.

Absolutely.

I remember a time when society used to trust the police and BBC as institutions but those days are long gone.

The club's fans have a reputation for violence in Israel - like Millwall back in th 80s. It's perfectly reasonable to have decided they were a risk.

We are in a no trust society now. The Police and media have themselves to blame.

Perhaps WMP had some sort of dodgy dossier given to them, it's important to know what info was acted on and where it came from. A bit of sunlight.

If the West Midlands Police have the intelligence they say they have on the potential threat, it shouldn't be a problem for them to provide it.

Would be good for them to provide the evidence anyway because as things stand at the moment, it looks like they may have just bowed to local pressure.

I don't personally put a lot of faith in police honesty based on a personal experience so think it's good that they should be made to provide proof of their claims.