I am a Jew. Raised in South London, went to state infant and secondary schools, college, and played football. Later on, I worked as a night guard at an Israeli diving club in the Sinai during the Camp David peace process and fished the Red Sea with my pals Pitzi – an Israeli – and Muhammad – a Muslim Beduin.
OK, that was then, the world has moved on, and we all know what’s happened since. Just setting out some of my story because of all the media and policy hysteria surrounding what is and what isn’t anti-semitism.
This is now
Right now, Keir Starmer says that the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans from UK soil ‘is the wrong decision. We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets. The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game.’ But for me, this whole Maccabi Tel Aviv – Aston Villa issue is a case study in the manipulative use of allegations of anti-semitism.
It turns out that the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans stems from intelligence shared by the European Policing Network to West Midlands Police. Savour the moment as UK media has its pants pulled down like never before – the Israeli Premier League derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv has just been cancelled by Israeli police after ‘violent riots before kick-off.’
I support the normal practice of banning proven violent, racist football thugs (already banned from Amsterdam) chanting about rape and murder – who also happen to be Israeli nationals. Trouble is, the UK Prime Minister seems prepared to overrule the local community safety group, the regional police, the local MP, the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU), and vital information from Europe-wide intelligence-sharing networks – apparently in order to support well-known football hooligans on the basis that they are also Israeli Jews.
Local democracy
All this has important implications for local authority policy and local democracy as our embattled PM seems prepared to overrule the local community safety group, the regional police, the local MP, the local football club Aston Villa, a national football policing organisation, and Europe-wide intelligence-sharing networks.
The loyalty and responsibility of the PM should be towards the local community, the local police, the local football club, and the local MP – in other words normal local democratic processes. Apparently, that’s now not the case as rational local democratic decisions are being subject to central government interference. So much for consultation, representative and deliberative democracy, which have all taken a hit.
And for what? To let a group of known violent and racist football hooligans put boots on ground.
So what?
With civilian populations decimated in Palestine, basic human rights abused and democratic norms challenged; it’s no time for the UK government to add to this tragic burden. There is no moral equivalence between what’s happening in Gaza and what’s happening in Birmingham. Like so many Jews, I feel nothing but abhorrence and shame for any conflation of Judaism and what has become Zionism.
For the UK, the key issues here are two-fold: A media that decides to support brutal thugs on the false basis they represent someone like me, and what appears to be a miscalculated swipe at local democracy. Either way, not in my name.
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