JVL: parliamentary condemnation of Maccabi ban riddled with undeclared Israel cash

Jewish Voice for Liberation has slammed the report by the parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) on the West Midlands Police (WMP) October 2025 ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv ‘fans’ as unacceptably partisan and dismissive of the fears of local people, particularly Birmingham’s large Muslim community. JVL exposed undeclared Israel influence and funding among MPs who welcomed the report’s condemnation of WMP for its decision to ban the Israeli thugs.

The kangaroo-court HASC has demanded that:

West Midlands Police must rebuild trust after failures in decision making and community outreach

over the ban. Maccabi Tel Aviv ‘fans’ are notorious thugs who rampage through cities they invade, attacking Muslims and yelling chants about rape and murder. This violent conduct has been seen in Israeli cities as well as outside the colony. But this didn’t stop the UK government and the rest of the UK Israel lobby clutching pearls. Politicians and other mouthpieces attacked the police ban as “antisemitic”. The manufactured furore eventually ousted WMP’s chief constable.

Maccabi supporters in parliament

MPs on the HASC had to declare their ‘friends of Israel’ memberships before the hearing, but MPs who have jumped in to reinforce its foregone conclusion didn’t. JVL notes:

Conservative MP Nigel Huddleston responded in the Commons that he agreed with all of its recommendations — but did not mention £4,500 he received from the Conservative Friends of Israel for a trip to Israel last year.

DUP’s Jim Shannon said: “Sport is always a method of bringing people together, but on this occasion it failed miserably as a result of the conduct of certain police elements that distorted the occasion of a Maccabi Tel Aviv football match.” He did not mention his ELNET UK-funded visit to Israel in April 2024.

But JVL missed one. Of the three MPs who welcomed the HASC report, all three have received Israel-linked donations. David Reed has accepted donations from the ‘Coalition for Global Prosperity’ (CGP). CGP has promoted ‘normalisation’ of relations between Israel and Arab states and says that the UK “ensur[e] ongoing support for Israel in protecting itself”. CGP has also organised events involving former chairs of the ‘Conservative Friends of Israel’ group and other ardent supporters of the colony.

JVL chair Jenny Manson told Skwawkbox that the HASC report prioritised the opinions and feelings of Israel supporters while minimising Muslim communities’ concerns and ignoring WMP’s efforts to engage with all communities:

In my analysis of this report I have focused on the impact of the attendance of the Maccabi TA fans on the small local Jewish population and the much larger community of local Muslims. The concern was about a group of Israeli football fans who are known internationally for threatening ‘Muslims’ and ‘Arabs’ ( identified often it seems by appearance). Their victims are subject to extreme violence as well as to name calling and threats. These Maccabi TA fans are often described correctly as “thugs”. See attached note.

None of the official reports have termed the ban ‘antisemitic’. This is absolutely the right conclusion. But in the section headed ‘Consultation with the Jewish Community’ and elsewhere in the report there is reference to antisemitism being part of the fall-out of the ban. The evidence that the police and the SAG approved the ban to protect all local people is minimised as is the fact that Jews were consulted. This is reflected in para 20; the Community Impact Assessment recorded the fears of local synagogue leaders. In any case as stated the police rightly consulted with the Community Security Trust. It deals with issues of public order and safety. Why were they not given credit for this?

But in relation to local Muslim fears, in the summary “Concerns remain that the Safety Advisory Group’s decision making may have been unduly influenced by political pressure. Councillors had a “disproportionate opportunity to exert influence”, undermining trust that decision making was based on evidence and safety and not political considerations.”

Here is the “evidence for this”; see these excerpts from paras 33 and 34:

“33. We have also considered the presence of Birmingham City councillors on the SAG. In particular, the SAG membership for this fixture included councillors who had been campaigning against the fixture taking place. Councillor Mumtaz Hussain, the councillor for Aston Ward, appeared in a video promoting a petition to cancel the fixture in September 2025.56 When she attended the SAG meeting on 7 October, she failed to declare an interest, and later characterised some Maccabi Tel Aviv fans as “thugs” in her contribution to the meeting. 57 In subsequent meetings all councillors declared their interests, and Cllr Hussain recused herself from the meeting of 24 October on the advice of the SAG. 58 We note that Cllr Zaffar (who has since passed away) did declare his interest as a campaigner against the match at the first SAG. However, while his contributions to the SAG on 7 October mostly related to safety, he nonetheless relayed the view of his community “that this game should not go ahead”….”

“34. While we cannot conclude that the Safety Advisory Group’s decision was made because of political pressure, on the basis of the evidence we have seen we also cannot conclude with any confidence that the decision was not politically influenced. It is clear that on this occasion councillors, with a stated political aim, had a disproportionate opportunity to influence Safety Advisory Group decision-making on a deeply divisive political issue.”

In short, the HASC report raises concerns of political pressure purely because councillors relayed the concerns of their residents and backed their communities’ opposition to the visit of the thug army.

In response, JVL has demanded that all MPs must disclose Israel lobby funding in any related debates or votes.

Featured image via Aljazeera