Miliband says ‘we must never have no go zones’ for Jews and Israelis in the UK amid Aston Villa row
Ed Miliband has warned that no part of Britain should be a “no-go zone” for Jews and Israelis.
The energy minister intervened as a row over West Midlands Police’s decision to ban football fans of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending their match against Aston Villa in Birmingham continued to escalate.
Aston Villa is preparing to meet Tottenham Hotspur, the club with the largest Jewish support in England, in the Premier League today at Villa Park.
Sir Trevor Phillips asked the energy minister, who is of Jewish origin, the following question: Sky News Responding to a petition by Birmingham independent MP Perry Barr Ayoub Khan, calling for the match to be stopped and a boycott of Israeli teams playing in England, Mr Miliband said: “No, I totally disagree with that approach and what is said in the petition.”
Mr Khan is an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, who is in the former Labor leader’s independent group.
The petition, signed by just 3,987 people, said: “This is not a normal match and one of the reasons given is that Maccabi fans have come to Aston, which has a diverse and predominantly Muslim community.”
Mr Miliband warned: “We cannot face a situation where any area is a no-go zone for people of a particular religion or from a particular country, and we must stamp out all forms of prejudice, antisemitism, Islamophobia wherever we find it.”
Asked whether the petition, backed by Birmingham independent MP Perry Barr Ayoub Khan, calling for the match to be stopped and a boycott of Israeli teams playing in England was justified, Mr Miliband said: “No, I totally disagree with that approach and what is said in the petition.”
Mr Miliband said the “vast majority of Muslim people in this country would move away from suggestions that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans cannot come to Aston Villa because it is a Muslim-majority area”.
But Mr Miliband stressed that “integration is never something that can be taken for granted” when asked about concerns that a lack of integration was contributing to the situation.
The fight continues, with Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Education Foundation, warning that the West Midlands Police decision “should chill us all”.
writing for I he said: “We decided that a group of fans should be excluded because of who they are and the team they support. Because they are Israeli. Because they are Jewish.”
Concerns about the police and antisemitism were also sparked by footage showing a Jewish lawyer being arrested by the Metropolitan Police for wearing a Star of David.
The arrested Jew was told the symbol was “hostile” to pro-Palestinian protesters, but accused the police of “trying to ban the Star of David”.
Mr Miliband said the government was holding talks to resolve the situation so the match could go on normally with fans from both sides attending.
