The outcry surrounding West Midlands Police (WMP) has increased following the UK Home Secretary demanding an investigation into the recent ban on Israeli soccer fans from an away game in Birmingham.
Civil servants working for Shabana Mahmood have now contacted Dutch officials to examine claims made about violence during Maccabi Tel Aviv’s match against Ajax in Amsterdam last November.
At the time, the decision to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from a UEFA Europa League fixture was explained in terms of their potential hooliganism. Subsequently, it came to light that—at least formally speaking—this decision would have been based on flawed ‘evidence’ gleaned from an Amsterdam police report. (There is widespread suspicion that this is just an excuse, however.)
The WMP’s hot take on the police file from the Netherlands is at odds with the actual events that left Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof “horrified by the antisemitic attacks on Israeli citizens“—and Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema described as “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” running riot around her city.
As the emerging Dutch legal consensus pointed to a “Jew Hunt” in and around last year’s Europa League match in Amsterdam, WMP cited allegations that up to 600 Maccabi supporters committed “hate-motivated crimes”—claiming that allowing fans to travel from Israel would create unacceptable risks.
A wider possibility is that the WMP succumbed to pressure from some local predominantly Labour councillors, whose aim is to boycott all things Israeli. Critics of the decision also suggest it attempted to appease Birmingham’s large Muslim community, some of whom turned out in protest against the Maccabi team when it played at Villa Park in November 2025.
While WMP burbled about public safety, anger at the decision has spread from Britain’s Jewish community—via the Jewish Chronicle publication—to other football fans, members of Parliament, and political pundits.
Mark Birbeck of Our Fight—a group of (mainly) non-Jews challenging British anti-Semitism—organised a central London protest, condemning what he calls the UK’s policy of policing by appeasement, where local anti-Israel activists are able to get the police to bend to their agenda, telling Talk (previously TalkTV)
The police are riding roughshod over fundamental rights in order to placate the loudest voices.
.jpg){kind=link}