Itâs a matter of days since the most sensible prime minister ever declared it is antisemitic to ban Israeli hooligans from a football match. The prime minister insisted that everyone from West Midlands police to Aston Villa football club are massive racists. He sensibly decided that banning a set of football fans based on evidence and reason was equivalent to hating all Jews.
Unfortunately, the city of Tel Aviv has gone and made Starmer look like a massive dickhead by calling off the Tel Aviv derby⌠due to fan violence
Due to fan violence. That violence involved throwing smoke grenades and pyrotechnics, presumably after someone confused the location for a Palestinian school (an easy mistake when attacking schools is your sole mission in life).
Fifteen of Godâs Chosen People⢠were injured in the violence, including twelve civilians and three police officers. Itâs a good job similar violence didnât happen in the UK, otherwise Starmer would have blamed our 12 civilians and three police officers!
Starmer faces the difficult position of being unsure whether to condemn the city of Tel Aviv for its âantisemitismâ or accept it was never antisemitic to ban those fans in the first place. One thing Starmer will not be doing is apologising to all the people he smeared because that would mean admitting to the weaponisation of antisemitism, and we canât do that, can we?
Perhaps the most sensible course of action would be for UEFA to have one rule inside of Israel and another outside. Obviously, itâs wrong to have hooliganism inside Israel because violence towards Godâs Chosen People⢠is the worst crime imaginable. But itâs fine for Israelis to come over here and beat the shit out of our fans while chanting about raping women and killing kids, like they definitely didnât do in Amsterdam.
Weâre now in this weird situation where weâre allowed to tell the truth about what Maccabi Tel Aviv fans did in Tel Aviv, but weâre still not allowed to talk about what they did in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were victims of a âpogromâ, and if they riot over here, they will also be victims of a pogrom (itâs the same logic that means Israelis are victims of a genocide while theyâre carrying out a genocide in Gaza).
Obviously, the precious feelings of Israeli hooligans should be protected at all costs because they need to blow off steam until they are called up for genocide duty. I therefore recommend Starmer continues casually throwing the word âantisemitismâaround whenever it is politically convenient. This definitely wonât undermine his credibility or the fight against antisemitism x
The following article about what has apparently happened was published by Middle East Eye.
Starmer has condemned restrictions on Aston Villa match amid widespread outrage, but the Israeli clubâs supporters have a history of violence and disruption
Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters demonstrate and light flares in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 7 November 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video (Reuters)
By Imran Mulla ⢠Published date: 17 October 2025 13:52 BST | Last update: 2 days 20 hours ago
Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Avivâs fans are notorious for stoking violence and disruption in European cities.
Now they have been banned from attending the clubâs Europa League match at Aston Villa in Englandâs Birmingham.
Shortly after the ban was announced on Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned it as the âwrong decisionâ, criticising West Midlands Police and saying: âWe will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets.â
Ministers are now reportedly looking into reversing the ban.
But whatâs the truth about it?
The ban is far from unprecedented. In November 2023 Aston Villa banned fans of another club, Legia Warsaw, from attending the match on the advice of West Midlands Police after supporters of the Polish club engaged in violence.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have a long track record of causing violence and disruption in European cities.
Amsterdam City Council recently banned Maccabi Tel Aviv from the Dutch capital after the clubâs fans caused mayhem by rampaging through the city in November, before and after their Europa League match against Ajax.
Israeli ministers claimed the clubâs fans were subject to attacks. But a large group of Maccabi supporters were filmed arming themselves with sticks, pipes and rocks and provoking clashes with Dutch youths.
Maccabi supporters were filmed chanting racist songs including âfuck the Arabsâ and âWhy is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there!â They were also seen ripping up Palestinian flags.
For two hours after the game, between 12.30am and 2.30am, violent incidents spread throughout the city as the Maccabi fans were confronted by local residents.
âDeeply implicated in racist and extremist displaysâ
In Athens in March 2024, Maccabi fans brutally beat a man who was carrying a Palestinian flag in Athens ahead of their teamâs match against Greek team Olympiacos, and lit flares in the city centre.
In 2023 in Cyprus, Maccabi supporters were arrested for possession of flares and smoke bombs. Others engaged in fights with local residents.
Uefa fined the club back in 2013 after fans displayed a banner during a match with the slogan âFEEL THE TERROR OF TEL AVIVâ.
A recent report by the Hind Rajab Foundation entitled âGame Over Israel: Sports Culture as a Cog in Genocideâ says Maccabi supporters have âbeen deeply implicated in racist and extremist displaysâ.
âUltras groups associated with the club frequently chant anti-Arab slogans during matches, turning stadiums into arenas of incitement rather than spaces of inclusion,â it said.
âBeyond verbal abuse, Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters have also been at the forefront of celebrating soldiers involved in the occupation, treating them as âheroesâ and embedding the glorification of militarism directly into fan rituals.â
Ashish Prashar of campaign group Game Over Israel, which co-authored the report, told Middle East Eye: âWe collected and verified extensive evidence of this systematic instrumentalisation of football culture in genocide.
âThis report integrates findings - from stadium racism, to assaults in Europe, to soldiers turning genocide into football propaganda - and demonstrates why Israelâs place in global sport is indefensible.â
West Midlands Police said they had classified the match as high risk based on âcurrent intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 Uefa Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdamâ.
âBased on our professional judgement, we believe this measure will help mitigate risks to public safety,â it said.
Antisemitism accusations
On Thursday evening and Friday morning, several politicians and prominent commentators denounced the ban as antisemitic.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called it a ânational disgraceâ. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said it âtakes racial discrimination to a whole new levelâ.
Meanwhile Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: âYou donât tackle antisemitism by banning its victims. This decision must be reversed.â
Tory MP Jack Rankin falsely claimed that Ayoub Khan, an independent MP who had campaigned for the ban, âthinks that Jews should be banned from football matchesâ.
Rankin called him an âunintegrated, racist antisemiteâ.
Khan said: âFrom the moment that the march was announced, it was clear that there were latent safety risks that even our capable security and police authorities would not be able to fully manage.â
âWith so much hostility and uncertainty around the match, it was only right to take drastic measures,â he added.
âSports entertainment events should be enjoyed by all, regardless of their race, ethnicity and background. But there are rare instances where the political dynamics surrounding such spectacles cannot be ignored, and where drastic action must be taken to ensure the safety of fans, players, staff and local residents.â
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) backed the ban, saying it âshould be understood in the context of their track record of committing racist violence in the cities hosting their teamâs games, but also the clubâs involvement in Israelâs apartheid systemâ.
The PSC added: âStarmerâs criticism of the ban shows that he expects Birmingham residents to tolerate racist incitement, and expects police to provide cover for it.â
This comes amid widespread calls for Uefa and Fifa to ban the Israel Football Association over allowing clubs in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine to participate in its competitions, as well as in response to the genocide in Gaza.
After Uefa lifted a blanket ban on Russian football teams in September 2023, Englandâs Football Association insisted its teams would still not play teams from Russia.
