Israelis should be welcome in Birmingham

[mids2019]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15206171/Parts-Birmingham-no-area-Jews-says-Ed-Miliband-ministers-scramble-allow-Israeli-fans-attend-Aston-Villa-football-match.html

The government need to act on this. West Midlands police have more than enough man power to police a football match with at most 1000 away fans. I watched West Midlands politics today and there was a politician brazenly saying part of the reason for effectively banning the Tel Aviv fans was they there was 'a moral point about Gaza'. We cannot have local councillors, community leaders and MPs agitating for the anti Semitic ban of fans of one of Israel's premier football teams.

We have to face reality want know that a lot of local residents are anti Israel and have taken this opportunity for VIlla Park to become a no go area for Jews.

Let's hope the decision is overturned and quickly.

Like I said. None of it will ever be good enough for you because apparently being Jewish means you can be as violent as you like.

That's a bold statement to make. I'm not Jewish and my sentiments in this matter are similar to a number of mainstream MPs and Cabinet ministers.

Aligning your views with other people doesn’t make them correct. A lot of people have jumped the gun and labelled it as antisemitism when it’s a policing decision based on the safety of the community.

I assume you’d be fine with them coming to your town, holding demonstrations and chanting “fuck the Arabs” and “death to Arabs”, scaling buildings to remove flags and breaking into building sites to steal scaffolding pipes and tools, before setting upon taxi drivers?

You keep saying this over and over.

But there is nothing that’s been announced that shows the ban was only to do with the Maccabi supporters. It was just as likely (I’d say more) to be about violence from anti-Israel activists.

That’s where the disgrace comes from: ban Israelis because we don’t want to have to control violent mobs of protesters.

The statement directly reference Amsterdam. Where MTA supporters had been violent.

And were attacked by gangs engaging in organised anti-Semitic violence.

Do you deny that that after them rioting in the streets?

You’re going to ‘they started it’ again aren’t you. As if antisemitic WhatsApp groups coordinating attacks spontaneously came to life after the Maccabi fans behaved violently and unpleasantly - which they did.

I asked a question. Do you dent that the MTA fans chanted in Amsterdam calling for death to Arabs, chanted all through the match against Ajax, and then after the match committed criminal damage and stole items from building sites, to attack taxi drivers?

So since people are discussing bans in Birmingham, supposedly on the basis of the risk the attendees present, what was the reason for Diwali celebrations being banned too?

I'd like to think nobody would suggest thousands of Hindus are all violent thugs too, but who knows?

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birminghams-diwali-festival-will-back-32647730

If anything this makes it clear that it wasn’t an anti semitic decision. You don’t see these communities crying discrimination and starting protests. They’ve just quietly accepted it.

Some did.

Do you deny that they were set upon by antisemitic thugs? Some of whom have been convicted.

I can’t say for sure, but it seems as if most casualties were Israeli.

I wasn't interested in whether the decision to ban the Diwali celebrations might be antisemitic, since clearly it isn't - more in why a group of Hindus would be disallowed their event because of purported "security concerns"

Sometimes it's hard not to wonder what the hell's goig on in Birmingham ...

I don’t, nor have I ever, denied that. But you are ignoring that the MTA fans were violent and that’s why they’ve been banned.

No, that’s the point. It may be part of why they’ve been banned. But there’s another part that’s just as likely - I say more likely - that the police didn’t want crowds of violent anti-Israel protestors making trouble.

Yet again, there is nothing in what’s been announced that says that it’s only the Maccabi fans’ conduct that caused the ban. Nothing.

The article clearly explains it and it was due to events in Manchester.

There’s also nothing to state that it’s because of that.

I fear some of you just don’t understand how football, and stadium bans, work.

That’s no answer.

There is nothing to suggest that the police view was that Maccabi supporters should be banned simply because of their previous disorder. There is every reason to think - including reference to Amsterdam - that the police view included, possibly as the major reason, a wider fear of anti-Israel thuggery.

It’s been shown on this thread that away supporter bans are not just handed out like sweeties and that sectarian grudges and local rivalries are the usual triggers.

And that UEFA did not support a ban.

And that MTA’s statement makes clear its (reasonable and well-founded) belief that other prejudices are at work.

MTA is not a reliable source on this.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/21/police-intelligence-on-extreme-maccabi-fans-with-history-of-violence-led-to-villa-park-ban

Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were banned from watching their game against Aston Villa after police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club...

According to sources, police intelligence said:

• Scores of extreme Maccabi fans with a past history of violence and shouting “racist taunts” were expected to travel to the Birmingham game.
• Dutch police told their British counterparts that the Maccabi fans had instigated trouble in Amsterdam at a game last year.
• They had randomly picked Muslims in Amsterdam to attack. That led to reprisal violence with some Dutch Jews attacked.
• A huge Dutch police effort, involving 5,000 officers across three days, was needed to quell the trouble.
• A community impact assessment by West Midlands police recorded that some Jewish people wanted the Maccabi fans banned because of the trouble that might ensue if they attended.
• Any trouble started by Maccabi fans attending the Birmingham game could lead to reprisals from local people and further trouble.
• The process did not consider whether the ban on fans of the Israeli club could be criticised as antisemitic itself or surrendering to antisemitism.

But yeah, antisemitism yada yada.

They're just violent racist thugs. It's not antisemitic to admit that such people exist in Israel the same as in any other country, and need to be treated the same (ie avoided). It's the opposite. A jewish thug is just a thug, like any other kind.

Yeah, an unsourced article in the Guardian. That doesn’t even say that anti-Israeli thuggery wasn’t a factor. That’s convincing.

🙄

You’re free to go look at videos of the incident

I was talking about anti-Israeli thuggery in the Aston Villa decision. Anti-Israeli (antisemitic) thuggery in Amsterdam is a matter of record.

Mad that a stadium ban is “thuggery” but Israel killing kids is just par for the course

You seem to have strayed from your narrative of it being just about the football.