I was inside the pro-Israel ‘Jew cage’ at Villa Park and this is what I saw

A round up of reports on last night in Birmingham. Starting with Ben Rumsby writing in the Telegraph this morning 

“A Jew cage.” That is where police put those protesting against the ban on Israeli fans attending Aston Villa’s Europa League game against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

For the Jews who found themselves inside a steel-ringed basketball court next to Villa Park on Thursday night, it was a terrible indignity after what had been an astonishing saga.

They accepted it was for their own safety – and the location had been agreed between West Midlands Police and the British pro-Israeli group who organised the protest. But the sight of Jews in a cage while rival demonstrators were left “free to roam Birmingham” nevertheless seemed to sum up everything that had happened in the build-up to the match itself.

Also there was British Jewish woman Shelly Blond

And Israeli Christian Yoseph Haddadd

One Maccabi fan even made the trip from Israel to protest, Yoseph Haddad – an Arab Christian rather than a Jew – telling Telegraph Sport he had attended Manchester City’s Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund the previous evening and saw no reason why he should not be allowed to support his own team inside Villa Park. He said it was “unbelievable” that such a fan ban had been imposed in Britain, adding: “It feels like going back to the 1940s all over again.” Wearing a Maccabi scarf, he later found himself being led away from the ground by police, presumably for his own safety.

From the announcement of a fan ban  .  .  .  to the signs put up around Villa’s home ground by masked anti-Zionist protestors on the eve of the match, Aston did little to dispel accusations Jews were not welcome in the majority-Muslim Birmingham suburb.

Jewish activist Itai Galmudy said: “For some reason, we need to find ourselves surrounded in a steel cage. It’s a sad, sad day for the United Kingdom that Jewish people have been made to feel that unsafe and unwelcome.”

(A speaker) who wanted only to be known as Russell …(said) “They think they own the streets. They think they can create no-go areas for Israelis, for Jews, for anyone who doesn’t agree with their  . . . .view.  He also took aim at MP Ayoub Khan and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who led calls for Maccabi fans to be banned from Thursday’s match, as well as those behind the decision made by Birmingham City Council’s Safety Advisory Group. He said: “Will the authorities, will the police, will the politicians, will the Government continue to appease the Islamo-fascist mob who abuse the Palestinian cause for their own political and religious gain? If we let them get away with this, what’s next? Birmingham will fall, London will fall, Britain will fall.”

GB News presenter and British Jew Josh Howie took to the megaphone to say: “It’s not fair that the racism and lies of sectarian extremists can determine which ethnic groups can attend a football match, can go to different areas of a city, even go to different areas of this country’s second city itself. And it’s not fair that, for our safety, we’ve been put in a Jew cage. But that is the reality of what we are seeing today, when Jewish Villa fans have been scared off from coming to support their own team.”

Our Fight founder Mark Birbeck …wrapped up proceedings by criticising Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and reminding those present that it was Remembrance Sunday this weekend, adding: “We have to remember that people of Britain – and our ancestors – they fought in wars for democratic rights, they fought for our freedoms, and this is exactly the kind of freedom that they’d have been fighting for.”

They then left one cage for another, formed of dozens of dutiful police officers, as they were slowly escorted away from Villa Park to shouts of “Stop the genocide” and “Free Palestine” from the kerbside – no doubt leaving them to wonder if they would ever be welcome there again.

Oliver Brown, also in the Telegraph wrote

Long before darkness fell over Birmingham, a Jewish man, nervous about giving his name or revealing his full face for a photograph, opened his bag to show the small Israeli flag he had brought. In a heartbeat, the drivers of two passing cars wound down their windows to hurl abuse. A woman walking down the street was similarly vitriolic. “Scum,” she called him. “Get the f— out of my city.” A few seconds later, a West Midlands Police officer strode over to warn him against waving the flag in anyone’s presence. As for the anti-Semitic message pinned to the lamppost overhead – “If you see a Zionist, call the anti-terror hotline” – there was not a word of censure.

These posters and a few other ‘slogans’ were put up by an Islamic group that call themselves Deen1fied. They were very proud of their handiwork here. 

Once the sun went down, pro-Palestinian activists began assembling outside Villa Park’s Trinity Road Stand, insisting they were here for peaceful protest. After all, nothing conveys benevolent intentions quite like spending the next several hours screaming “From the river to the sea”, “Allahu Akbar” and “Death to the IDF”. “Aston welcomes everybody,” declared one preacher with a megaphone. Just not if you are Israeli, or if you display any sympathy for an Israeli football team . . . the upsurge of anti-Semitic sentiment was evident in every direction, with the approaches to the stadium bedecked in such slogans as “Give Zionism the red card” and “Your pitch, your choice – boycott Israel”.

Ashrar Rashid – the radical Birmingham-based cleric who had stoked tensions by handing down an “Islamic ruling” that “we will not show mercy to Maccabi fans” – turned up to double down on his venomous message.

“We should not have mercy, I meant what I said,” Rashid ranted. “The IDF killers, they are not welcome here today. Israel, your so-called state, how can you be a part of a European championship when you’re not even in Europe? What is known as Israel is not in Europe, it’s an admission from you that you are a European occupation of Middle Eastern land.”

True to form, Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, heralded the exclusion of Maccabi fans as a profound personal vindication. After all, he had drawn up a petition with Jeremy Corbyn, adamant that this game could “not be tolerated as business as usual” in light of the “ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

The Rev Tim Gutmann, the founder of Christian action against anti-Semitism, said: “This protest is against an ancient hate and an ancient evil that hasn’t stopped, and that has again risen in our time.”

Holding up a placard to say that “‘never again’ is now”, he explained: “As a Christian, it’s important for me to be here to show that we stand with our fight and stop the hate. These are huge moments for a nation. We cannot have no-go zones for Israeli football fans. We can’t have no-go zones for Jewish people.”

It was a compelling statement, but you wondered how much it was replicated in reality. For the constant refrains of “from the river to the sea” made this, quite frankly, an intolerable environment for Jewish people. One sight crystallised the issue: that of a 40-strong cluster of Maccabi fans, surrounded by an equal number of police officers, if not more. It was absurd that Jews should require this degree of protection in a free society. But this is the natural endgame if anti-Semitism is allowed to proliferate, unchecked, on British streets.

Jack Angelides, CEO of Maccabi Tel Aviv gave an interview to BBC Radio 4. he said ““This is the only country where we were told it is unsafe for us to stay in the city where we were playing the match.” The players were also told they had to get to the ground five hours before the game and should rest in the club facilities until kick off.

This was wise as it was known that the Birmingham branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) had volunteer spotters out in shifts looking for the team and any other Jewish fans or wider supporters.

The football of the match itself was overshadowed by the hate the away team attracted. By Aston Villa won 2-0. The Birmingham Mail has a proper football report here. 

There were 11 arrests, all men and boys aged 17 to 67. Including Young Bob a 17 year old activist who doesn’t seem to have been charged – it sounds like the police took him away because ‘they couldn’t guarantee his safety’ as usual and it is easier to arrest one boy than deal with the violent threatening mob.  

The more positive news is that Dame Karen Bradley, the chairwoman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has written to West Midlands Police demanding a copy of their risk assessment for this fixture and detailing their reasons for banning the Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters.  The tone is that an initial assessment by the committee is of the opinion that just saying the Maccabi Tel Aviv have a few hooligans amongs their supporters and a few of them caused a bit of trouble in Amsterdam isn’t good enough.  We all know that in Amsterdam the Israeli supporters were subjected to a pogrom that the local muslims were clear was a “Jew hunt”.  She wants a reply by the 19th and the committee intend to publish it.