{"id":358652,"date":"2026-01-08T09:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358652\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:01:17","slug":"jewish-community-frustrated-with-police-over-handling-of-maccabi-tel-aviv-fans-ban-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358652\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish community \u2018frustrated\u2019 with police over handling of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans ban | Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Midlands police \u201cdid not do themselves any favours\u201d when giving evidence to MPs about a decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans<\/a>, a Birmingham Jewish leader has said.<\/p>\n

The force\u2019s chief constable, Craig Guildford, is facing growing calls from MPs and Jewish groups to resign after further details emerged about the circumstances surrounding a ban on away fans attending the Europa League match against Aston Villa<\/a> at Villa Park on 6 November.<\/p>\n

Senior officers were challenged by a cross-party committee on Tuesday, where they insisted the ban was \u201cbased on safety\u201d<\/a> and was not politically influenced. MPs questioned the police on the evidence they had gathered, which they said seemed \u201cone sided\u201d and inflated the threat of Maccabi fans.<\/p>\n

Craig Guildford defended his decision on Tuesday. Photograph: House of Commons\/PA<\/p>\n

Ruth Jacobs, the chair of the Birmingham and West Midlands<\/a> Jewish Community, which represents about 1,500 Jewish members, said on Wednesday that it was still not clear what led to the ban made by the council-led security advisory group (SAG) and there continued to be \u201cconflicting reports\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police did not do themselves any favours yesterday [at the home affairs select committee]\u201d she said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t really explain their position clearly which left me feeling confused.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ban and subsequent revelations have \u201ccaused a lot of frustration, anger, disappointment, confusion\u201d among Jewish people in the West Midlands, Jacobs added.<\/p>\n

Some members felt this \u201cvery strongly and are advocating for further action\u201d, including for the chief constable to resign, although many did not share this view, she said.<\/p>\n

The leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, and the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), have called for Guildford to resign, claiming officers had made a decision to ban fans first then \u201csearched for evidence to justify it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police excluded (having initially included) any assessment of the significant risk to the Jewish community, and claimed to have consulted the local community in advance of the decision, which they had not,\u201d the BoD statement added.<\/p>\n

Jacobs, who received a formal apology from West Midlands police for not consulting the group before the ban was announced on 16 October, said police shared their intelligence on 17 October that there was a possibility of disruption from Maccabi Ultra fans as well as members of Birmingham\u2019s wider community.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, a police report dated 5 September was published which contained claims that locals in Birmingham might \u201carm\u201d themselves.<\/p>\n

The West Midlands police and crime commissioner, Labour\u2019s Simon Foster, announced a formal review of the evidence provided to the committee by West Midlands police on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Jacobs said she believed the police chief\u2019s assertion that the ban on fans was not politically motivated. However, she said she believed there were \u201cpolitical motivations\u201d from councillors who attended the SAG that had previously expressed \u201cstrong views on Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Guardian previously reported on redacted minutes from a meeting of the SAG on 16 October \u2013 the day the ban was announced \u2013 which showed Jewish communities had warned West Midlands police<\/a> the ban on fans \u201ccould be perceived as antisemitic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite the growing calls for the chief\u2019s resignation, Jacobs said there were still many who felt \u201cvery appreciative\u201d of the way officers have \u201clooked after\u201d the Jewish community since the 7 October attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Maccabi business is a separate sort of incident and I don\u2019t think that for most of us, I don\u2019t think that detracts from the day-to-day or week-to-week experience that we have with the police,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In response, the Labour leader of Birmingham city council, John Cotton, said he had told the chief constable in October that he \u201cdid not believe a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv<\/a> fans was the right outcome\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder my leadership, the council and the SAG are committed to reviewing their processes, and to improve for the future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

West Midlands police was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Midlands police \u201cdid not do themselves any favours\u201d when giving evidence to MPs about a decision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-358652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}