“Starmer wants Birmingham to host people who chant for Palestinians to be raped and their villages burned. The fixture should not be going ahead.”
Ben Jamal, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
By the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
The banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the game in Birmingham should be understood in the context of these fans’ track record of committing racist violence in the cities hosting their team’s games, but also the club’s involvement in Israel’s apartheid system.
The fans that Prime Minister Starmer wants to be able to maraud through the streets of Birmingham have been documented chanting, “Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there”, referring to the over 20,000 Palestinian children killed in Israel’s genocide.
Starmer’s criticism of the ban shows that he expects Birmingham residents to tolerate racist incitement and expects police to provide cover for it. He has no regard for Palestinian safety, whether in Palestine or here in Britain. This is blatant anti-Palestinian racism.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have a long and sordid history of genocidal chanting and racist violence. This was exemplified during their rampage in Amsterdam last year, where they attacked residents, including an attempt to drag a taxi driver out of his car and attack him.
The club has been directly involved in Israel’s atrocities, including sending “care packages” to Israeli soldiers committing genocide, and organising videos of club employees serving as Israeli soldiers as motivation before matches.
Allowing Israeli football teams to compete in international competitions sanitises its horrific atrocities against Palestinians and allows Israel to cynically present itself as a normal country, obscuring the truth of its oppression of Palestinians. Israeli football cannot be separated from Israel’s apartheid regime. The Israel Football Association contains at least 6 football clubs in illegal Israeli settlements based on land stolen from Palestinians.
Palestinians have long demanded that international sporting bodies ban Israel from membership, just as was done to apartheid South Africa. This call is growing in momentum. But UEFA and FIFA still refuse to act. Banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending is nowhere near enough. The game must be cancelled.
Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said:
“Starmer’s willingness to conflate opposition to Israel’s crimes with antisemitism has now taken him to a place where he defends, supposedly in the name of antiracism, the rights of avowedly anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, violent thugs to demonstrate their hate in a British city and at a football match.
The Maccabi fan base has an egregious track record of racist violence that led them to being banned from the city of Amsterdam. Starmer wants Birmingham to host people who chant for Palestinians to be raped and their villages burned. The fixture should not be going ahead. Israel and all Israeli clubs should be removed from international competitions.”
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- This article was originally published by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on 17 October 2025.
