Police say they did not mean to imply Jewish community supported fan ban
He said the West Midlands Police chief did not mean to imply that members of the Jewish community had agreed to exclude Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a football match in Birmingham.
Asked by MPs on Monday whether representatives of the Jewish community had said they did not want Maccabi fans to attend the Europa League match against Aston Villa on November 6, West Midlands Deputy Chief Constable Mike O’Hara said “yes”.
The Sunday Times reported He said he has since apologized to members of the Jewish community in a letter.
The decision to ban fans from Villa Park was widely criticized, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “furious at the decision”.
The match had been classed as high risk by West Midlands police based on “intelligence and previous incidents”.
When asked by the Home Affairs Committee on Monday to explain the reason for the decision, ACC O’Hara said some representatives of the Jewish community in Birmingham had said they did not want Maccabi fans to attend the match.
“Were members of the community saying they didn’t want Maccabi fans there, and did that include any Jewish representatives?” asked Conservative MP Karen Bradley, chair of the committee.
ACC O’Hara replied, “Yes.”
Bradley again asked if there were “representatives of the Jewish community who say they don’t want Maccabi fans there” and ACC O’Hara said “a range of beliefs, backgrounds and ethnicities… are very concerned”.
Asked whether this included Jews, he said yes, adding that this was documented in the police risk analysis.
A police spokesman said: “The officer’s intention was not to imply that there were members of the Jewish community who openly supported the exclusion of Maccabi fans.”
They said the force expected further interaction with the committee and “will ensure this is expressed clearly, as is the case with representatives of the Jewish community”.
“We recognize that this is a difficult time for our local Jewish community, which is why we have and continue to actively engage,” they added.
The decision by the Birmingham Safety Advisory Group (Sag), a panel including Birmingham City Council and the police, to remove fans was partly based on police intelligence.
present evidence to the committeePolice Chief Craig Guildford said the police assessment was based primarily on information given to police by Dutch police commanders before the match.
Chief Constable Guildford said: “The information coming from the Dutch was very, very clear in the sense that it reflected the days before, during and after the match as a result of clashes between Maccabi ultras and the local Muslim community.”
“From what we were told, the ultras were very well organized and their operations were militaristic. They attacked members of the local community, including taxi drivers. They tore down flags. People were thrown into the river.”
But Dutch police said police justified the ban by using false intelligence about disorder involving Maccabi fans attending a match in Amsterdam last year, the Sunday Times previously reported.
Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, also told the Home Affairs Committee that only one flag was taken down the night before the match and there was only one incident involving a taxi driver.
Following the ban, the prime minister criticized the move, saying “we will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets” and said the role of the police was to “ensure all football fans can enjoy the game without fear of violence or intimidation”.
The match against Aston Villa, played under the watchful eye of more than 700 police officers, ended without serious disturbances and only a few people were arrested.
Before the match, hundreds of pro-Palestinian fans and a smaller group of pro-Israeli protesters gathered outside the field, waving banners and flags.
