Police said that they did not want to suggest that the Jewish community backed the Tel Aviv fan ban.
According to the police, a West Midlands Police commander did not intend to suggest that members of the Jewish community had approved of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters’ expulsion from a Birmingham football game.
West Midlands Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara said “yes” when MPs repeatedly questioned him on Monday about whether Jewish community representatives had stated they did not want Maccabi supporters to attend the Europa League match against Aston Villa on November 6.
He has subsequently sent an apology to members of the Jewish community, according to the Sunday Times.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressed his “rage by the decision” in response to the widespread criticism of the Villa Park fan ban.
West Midlands police had deemed the match to be of high risk due to “information and past events”.
When questioned on Monday about the Home Affairs Committee’s rationale, ACC O’Hara stated that certain Birmingham Jewish community officials had stated they did not want Maccabi supporters to attend the game.
“Did the communities express a desire to keep the Maccabi supporters out, and were there any Jewish representatives among them?” The committee’s head, Conservative MP Karen Bradley, posed the question.
“Yes,” said ACC O’Hara.
ACC O’Hara said that “a mix of religions, races and ethnicities… were quite worried” to Bradley’s repeated question about if “there were Jewish community officials who expressed that they did not want the Maccabi fans there”.
When asked again if this included Jews, he said that it did, adding that the force’s risk analysis had documented it.
“It was never the intention of the officer to infer that there were members of the Jewish community who had directly indicated support for the expulsion of Maccabi fans,” a police official stated.
According to them, the force will “guarantee that this is clearly expressed as it has been with leaders of the Jewish community” and anticipates more interaction with the committee.
They said, “We have and continue to actively engage because we recognize that this has been a tough period for our local Jewish community.”
Police intelligence had a role in Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group’s (Sag) decision to exclude away fans. Sag is a group that comprises the police and Birmingham City Council.
Chief Constable Craig Guildford said before the committee that information provided to the force by Dutch police commanders before to the game served as the main basis for the police review.
Chief Constable Guildford stated, “The evidence from the Dutch was very, very clear in terms of they reflected on the days before, during, and after the event as a consequence of conflicts between the Maccabi ultras and the local Muslim population.”
According to what we were informed, the ultras were extremely well-organized and had a military mindset. They assaulted nearby residents, including taxi drivers. ripped down flags. They threw people into the river.
However, as previously reported in the Sunday Times, Dutch police claimed to have used fabricated information on disturbances involving Maccabi supporters at a game in Amsterdam last year to justify the ban.
Lord Mann, the government’s independent antisemitism advisor, also informed the Home Affairs Committee that there had only been one incident involving a taxi driver and one flag being destroyed the night before the game.
Following the ban, the prime minister denounced the action, stating that “we will not allow antisemitism on our streets” and that the police’s job was “to guarantee all football fans may enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation”.
With almost 700 police officers on duty, the match versus Aston Villa went off without any major disturbances and only a few arrests.
A smaller number of pro-Israeli demonstrators and hundreds of pro-Palestinian fans gathered outside the stadium before to the game, carrying flags and banners.
