Banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Birmingham the 'wrong decision', chief of the Board of Deputies of British Jews says
The decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans has been met with fury by the government, which is actively trying to have the ban overturned.
Jewish people are “still reeling” from the Manchester synagogue attack and the police have made the “wrong decision” to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the team's match against Aston Villa, Michael Wegier, Chief Executive of The Board of Deputies of British Jews, has told LBC.
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Aston Villa confirmed on Thursday that no away fans from the Israeli side are to attend the European tie due to security fears.
Prior to the ban, many had raised concerns both about the previous behaviour of Maccabi fans, who have been involved in several incidents in recent years, and how the people of Birmingham would react to their arrival due to Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans has been met with fury by the government, which is actively trying to have the ban overturned.
Read more: Israel launches strikes on Gaza after accusing Hamas of 'bold violation of ceasefire'
The decision comes at a time when Jewish people are “still reeling” from the terror attack at a Manchester synagogue, which left two people dead, Mr Wegier told Lewis Goodall.
“People are grieving, people are shocked. We were not terribly surprised by it. We had been preparing ourselves that something like this could happen in the UK because it's happened in other parts of the world.
“But by no means would I say that the Jewish community is over this and I don't think we’ll get over it for a very long time.”
Mr Wegier said that Tel Aviv’s match against Aston Villa should “absolutely go ahead with away fans permitted and encouraged to attend.”
“The police seem to me perfectly capable of policing very hostile anti-Israel marches every week and they do that if they are required to,” he said.
“They also successfully police football matches throughout the country, where you have fans who are extremely hostile to each other.”
He added he “hopes” West Midlands Police changes its mind in the coming days.
“It will be a terrible thing if the Israeli supporters are not permitted and there is something of the whiff of antisemitism about this.”
Despite this, Mr Wegier rejects the claims that police are institutionally antisemitic,
“I think they responded to people in the area who have come, some of them with very bad motives,” he said.“I absolutely would not ascribe to the local police in the Ashford area have an antisemitic motive. Absolutely not.”