Elite tantrums over Maccabi Tel Aviv keep missing the point

Establishment politicians, fascists, and Israel lobbyists are still trying to stir up outrage over the 2025 decision to stop Maccabi Tel Aviv hooligans entering Birmingham. But whether intentionally or not (we suspect it’s the former), they keep completely missing the point.

NO ISRAELI TEAM should be playing internationally during genocide

The key point is about simple common sense. Because any ordinary person would completely back a ban on “highly organised” hooligans – from an apartheid state currently committing genocide, no less – who proudly chant “death to Arabs”, sing about rape, and glorify genocidal actions.

Most ordinary people would probably also accept that no football team at all from a country committing horrendous war crimes should be playing in international competitions. After all, FIFA and UEFA banned Russia very quickly after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In the 1980s, meanwhile, UEFA actually stopped all football clubs in England from playing in Europe’s biggest competitions for five whole years after a group of English fans caused the deaths of 39 people. So when it wants to, it can give harsh punishments even outside a context of war crimes.

FIFA and UEFA corruptly and hypocritically dodging consistent calls to ban Israel doesn’t make the apartheid state’s ongoing participation ok. Because despite a so-called ‘ceasefire’ largely taking Gaza out of the news in recent weeks (and yes, Israel is still stopping foreign journalists from entering the occupied territory), the genocide continues:

Israel has killed at least 420 Palestinians and injured 1,184 in near-daily attacks since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, bringing the total to 71,386 killed and 171,264 injured since the start of its genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/1m8IY802jF

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 6, 2026

Israel’s ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, meanwhile, is also continuing at an intensifying pace:

I can’t find a single mainstream Western outlet sharing this story. Imagine the coverage if it was a U.S. adversary storming a university and attacking students. pic.twitter.com/ee3XpImA6P

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) January 6, 2026

Israeli settler violence surged in the last few months of 2025 as the Israeli government expands illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/CttGuDZE1U

— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 2, 2026

Israel’s approval of 19 new illegal settlements stands to redraw the occupied West Bank, undermining the prospect of a two-state solution https://t.co/BOo6P8hQ48 pic.twitter.com/thUBYqB7Vd

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 27, 2025

This is what the Israeli government's accelerated ethnic cleansing of the occupied West Bani looks like. https://t.co/i1FGbwyQky pic.twitter.com/fnI0wVT0BR

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) December 22, 2025

Nothing should outrage us more than genocide – and certainly not Maccabi Tel Aviv

Israeli occupation forces have killed over 20,000 children in Gaza since 2023. Any ordinary person would be talking about that, rather than a decision to ban a controversial team.

Israel apologists inside and outside the UK political system, however, are raging now about the fact that police suspected there might be violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans if they came to Birmingham. Police knew that notoriously racist Israeli fans entering a highly diverse city would be a safety risk, and they acted.

Does that mean all Maccabi fans would have been violent? No. Does that mean all people opposing genocide and Maccabi hooligans’ glorification of it would have been violent? No. But it does mean that it was a sensible police decision to avoid unnecessary unrest.

Despite the ban, meanwhile, Zionist and fascist agitators still turned up in Birmingham for the match.

But again, the issue isn’t this decision or this match. It’s not even Maccabi Tel Aviv’s public history of racist violence (one case of which UEFA recognised and punished just in December 2025) – or its infamous actions in Amsterdam in 2024 in particular. And it’s not the worsening pattern of racist and misogynistic behaviour from Israeli fans in general.

The issue is Israel’s colonial crimes, and the demand for accountability. The Maccabi Tel Aviv debate is just a storm in a teacup that Israel apologists have been stirring up to take focus away from the apartheid state’s genocide and ethnic cleansing. Those are the issues we need to be talking about.

Featured image via the Canary