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| Britain |
| Judenfrei: UK police used fake evidence to justify ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, chief admits |
| 2025-12-04 |
| [IsraelTimes] In parliamentary grilling, local police commander concedes he ‘conflated’ information, met with anti-Israel MP ahead of decision; Tory MP calls for resignation after ‘shocking’ admissions. The UK’s West Midlands Police used fictitious evidence to justify its advice to ban Israeli fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team from attending a match in Birmingham last month, the force’s chief admitted to a parliamentary committee Monday, as MPs grilled police brass on the basis of their controversial decision. The Aston Villa soccer club announced in October that no Maccabi fans would be allowed at a November match following a police assessment that classified the event as "high risk" and suggested banning Israeli fans from the stadium. In the report presented to the club that suggested banning Israeli fans, police presented information about a 2023 match between Maccabi and West Ham, which the report said was the Israeli club’s "last appearance on UK soil to date." "The most recent match Maccabi played in the UK was against West Ham in the Europa Conference League on Nov 9, 2023," the report read. However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... no such match was played, and Maccabi has never faced off against the East London club. When grilled about the fact that this fictitious match was included in his force’s report, Chief Constable Craig Guildford admitted to the Home Affairs Committee that such an event "didn’t happen." "But it could've! That's what's important" "West Ham have never played Tel Aviv. On that day, West Ham played Olympiacos of Greece and beat them one-nil," Guilford told the parliamentary committee. Guilford said that the fictitious match ended up in the report "due to a social media post," but insisted it did not impact his overall decision. In addition to the fake match, police cited " The report claimed that Israeli fans threw "innocent members of the public into the river," that 500-600 of them "intentionally targeted Moslem communities" and that the violence forced the deployment of 5,000 coppers. Guildford admitted to MPs that he "conflated" information about the Amsterdam incidents in the report, including an example about a "running street battle" that did not take place on the day of the match. Despite the admission, the police chief defended the decision to ban Israeli fans, arguing that Dutch police told him that some Maccabi fans were "militaristic," and that "Dutch commanders were unequivocal they would never want to have Tel Aviv playing in Amsterdam again in the future — that was what they said to our chief inspector." "The information provided from the Dutch was very, very clear in terms of they reflected on the days before, during and after the match as a result of festivities between the Maccabi ultras and the local Moslem community," the police chief said. However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Dutch law enforcement sources said last week that the examples used to justify the ban were false. Amsterdam police front man Sebastiaan Meijer told London’s Sunday Times that the only person thrown into the canal during the violence last year appeared to have been a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan, who was told he could only get out of the freezing water if he said "Free Paleostine." Regarding the claim that hundreds of Israeli fans deliberately targeted the Moslem community, Meijer said that while there were small groups that got into fights, it was "not a lot and not in a very alarming way." "The Amsterdam police does not recognize the claim," read the response from Dutch law enforcement. Furthermore, Dutch police said that around 1,200 officers were deployed in the city as the violence broke out, rather than the 5,000 claimed in the British police assessment. Responding to questions regarding the Dutch police’s comments, Guildford said he believed the recent report was influenced by "pressure locally," and argued that he disagreed with the Dutch police’s own assessment about the incident that took place in Amsterdam last year. When pressed on this claim by a committee member, who asked if Guildford was suggesting that the Amsterdam police were "in denial" about their claims that the events described in the West Midlands Police’s report "didn’t happen," the police chief deflected, saying, "With respect, you would have to ask them." At the time of the incident, Dutch and Israeli officials said that the Maccabi fans were deliberately targeted by roving gangs of Moslems, calling the incident an antisemitic "pogrom." Lastly, Guildford and Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara admitted in the committee that they had met with Independent MP Ayoub Khan, an outspoken anti-Israel figure, while authoring the report that suggested banning Israeli fans from the November match. The admission appeared to contradict their earlier claims that was "no political pressure" to ban Maccabi supporters, as Khan had previously contacted Aston Villa to voice his strong opposition to allowing Israeli fans at the event, arguing that they were a security risk. While Guildford insisted that his meeting with Khan was not unusual, as police often meet with local MPs when issuing reports on public safety, he did admit that significant opposition to Israeli fans’ attendance from local community leaders was "fed into the command team" as they authored their report. Reacting to Guildford’s statements, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told the committee: "This evidence session revealed a shocking series of admissions from West Midlands Police." "It’s now clear the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from travelling to Birmingham was a capitulation to an holy warrior mob, backed up by questionable evidence sourced by a single police inspector and dubious social media searches," the Conservative Party MP said, adding that: "After such a litany of errors, it’s only right that the Chief Constable resigns." The decision to ban Israeli fans from the game sparked criticism, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who set about trying to reverse the move, though Maccabi Tel Aviv later announced it would decline tickets for its fans anyway, citing safety concerns. A British Jewish communal organization said it was told it could not receive the Israeli-designated tickets. The match was played on November 6 without Maccabi fans in attendance, with the Premier League side defeating the Israeli squad 2-0. More than 700 police were deployed across Birmingham as some 200 pro-Paleostinian and a few dozen pro-Israel protesters held separate demonstrations outside Villa Park stadium in the run-up to kick-off. While the match took place largely without incident, police said they made six arrests before and during the event. They said a 21-year-old man was arrested for failing to comply with an order to remove a face mask, while a 17-year-old boy was arrested for failing to comply with a dispersal order. Three others were arrested for racially aggravated public order offenses and another for breach of the peace. Birmingham, the UK’s second-largest city and home to a significant Moslem population, has been the scene of regular pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel rallies over the last two years. Related: West Midlands Police: 2025-11-24 Judenfrei: UK police used false claims about Israeli fans to justify soccer game ban – report West Midlands Police: 2025-11-07 Maccabi TLV loses Europa League soccer match its fans were barred from attending in UK West Midlands Police: 2025-10-18 Judenfrei: UK authorities seeking to reverse soccer club’s ban on Israeli fans |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
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| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-12-04 05:27 |