Starmer’s latest stunt weaponising anti-semitism hit the headlines this morning. BBC Breakfast led with the story. He says he is appalled at the local council and police decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv away football supporters attending the Europa League match at Villa Park in Birmingham. He says the decision was wrong because it is anti-semitism against Israeli fans.
Major news networks could have taken just a minute or two to fnd the clips that captured the behavior of these fans at the November 7th 2024 match against Ajax in Amsterdam. We have added them to the bottom of this article. You can see these same fans going down escalators or in the streets chanting ‘fuck you Palestine’ ‘Death to Arabs’, ‘Israel Army will win’. A woman identified as pro-Palestine by what she was wearing was physically attacked and a Palestine flag was pulled down from a building. All this is in the public record despite the Sky News management deleting a report that highlighted all this. These fans created similar havoc when the team played in Athens.
Banning violent football fans is not unusual
True, as a result of this racist provocation, the local people, including many pro-Palestine ethnic minority groups did react by organizing a big demonstration which led to some scuffles. Clearly the Birmingham local police and council looked at all this and decided, rather sensibly, that given the demographics of their area and the track record of Maccabi fans it would be better for public safety if these people were banned.
Indeed these decisions are taken all the time and are backed by the football authorities too. Liverpool fans were banned from travelling to Europe for a number of years after the Heysel stadium tragedy. Chelsea fans were banned after a racist incident in Paris after a champions league match. Local derby matches are always subject to bans and restrictions.
Starmer plays the antisemitic card (again)
Starmer and/or his advisors obviously thought they could play the antisemitism card, confident that the media and other political parties would not waste time looking at the actual history of these events. Clearly they wanted to smear the local Gaza Independent MP, Ayoub Khan, who is aligned with Your Party, the new left party project. He had organised a petition calling for a ban. Despite sneering at Sultana and Corbyn and the new left party project Labour knows that it is precisely in these areas that they are losing support badly. Maybe it thinks this sort of stunt will help it recover. Tory leader Kemi Bedonoch and the Liberal Democrats have also piled in behind Starmer as has the mainstream media.
Ironically this is a highly authoritarian government that is banning people and events all the time. It is arresting people for holding up cardboard signs saying they are against genocide and for Palestine Action as well as wanting to further restrict the right to protest and to say certain slogans. But when it comes to giving complete license to racist, anti-Arab football hooligans then they must be waved through.
Russian national teams have been mostly banned from international competition as a result of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Even individual tennis players like Medvedev are not identified with their nationality when playing tournaments. Starmer has no problems with that ban but allowing the supporters of a genocidal occupation in not an issue at all.
Boycott Israel
Sadiq Khan once again has stood up for what used to be considered Labour party values of fairness and honesty. He told Newsnight on Thursday:
“We cannot conflate antisemitism when we look at what some of these fans did in Amsterdam in 2024 … We’re talking about violent fans and I think the prime minister should stay out of operational matters.” (Guardian 17.10.25)
The Green Party has also taken a good position, criticising Starmer:
“Under normal circumstances, supporters from across the fanbase should be allowed to attend and provision taken to ban violent elements such as The Ultras. But these are not normal circumstances: these games are taking place in the context of thousands of civilians being killed in Gaza, the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and the upholding of a system of apartheid.”
Zarah Sultana has also made a statement:
Next UEFA must ban all Israeli teams.
We cannot have normalisation with genocide and apartheid.
Apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics for 32 years.
The same people who called Nelson Mandela a “terrorist” now say we can’t boycott apartheid Israel.
They were on the wrong side of history then — and they’re on the wrong side of history now.
You don’t have “normal relations” with genocide and apartheid.
Boycott, divestment and sanctions until Palestine is free
This raises serious moral questions for the UK, UEFA, and the wider football community. We need a sporting and cultural boycott of all Israeli teams, like we saw for South African teams under apartheid. International sporting bodies can and must take a stand when basic human rights are being violated.
Football should be a force for peace and justice, not a tool to sportwash atrocities.
We need to call on our local MPs to oppose Starmer’s interference into what is an operational decision for people on the ground. In any case there needs to be a demonstration in Birmingham against the presence of the IDF’s favourite team and their racist fans whether the ban is lifted or not. More generally we should support the international boycott of Israeli sporting and cultural events.
Below are three video clips showing Maccabi fans racist slogans and actions:
How the unrest unfolded in Amsterdam – video timeline | Netherlands | The Guardian
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1304472254321876
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