Ulster MP’s claim police caved to Muslim ‘pressure’ over Maccabi row ‘disgraceful and divisive’

An MP has been reported to parliament's standards commissioner for claiming that police banned Israeli fans from a football match due to Muslim influence, Middle East Eye has learnt.

During a parliamentary session on Monday, the Democratic Unionist Party's Sammy Wilson suggested West Midlands police had "given in to pressure from Muslim politicians and Muslim thugs" in banning fans of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv from a 6 November fixture at Villa Park.

The ban on the Israeli fans triggered a political furore and was denounced as antisemitic last month by the British government. 

Middle East Eye revealed earlier this month that a confidential West Midlands Police report said Dutch police told them that hundreds of Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans who wreaked havoc in Amsterdam in November 2024 were "experienced fighters", "highly organised" and "intent on causing serious violence".

But a report in the Sunday Times has since claimed West Midlands Police overstated the threat posed by Maccabi fans, an accusation that the force has denied.

In parliament, Wilson asked Home Office minister Sarah Jones: "Given that the reports in the Sunday Times seem to contradict totally what the police in the West Midlands said, is it not accurate to say that their recommendations on which Israeli fans were to be banned from the Aston Villa match were nothing but a tissue of lies?"

He added: "It appears that the West Midlands Police have given in to pressure from Muslim politicians and Muslim thugs.

"As a result, the Jewish community are once again left feeling that they are the disadvantaged people.

"Will the minister assure us that the inquiry will look very clearly at what political pressure was put on the police in the West Midlands to reach their decision?"

There is no evidence that West Midlands Police faced pressure from any politicians, while numerous MPs - both Muslim and non-Muslim - supported the ban on Maccabi fans. 

Exclusive: Violent Maccabi fans were organised fighters 'linked to IDF', UK police found

Read More »

MEE put this to Wilson but did not receive a response by time of publication.

Independent Alliance MP Ayoub Khan, who was a prominent supporter of the ban, called for Wilson to apologise and told MEE he would lodge a complaint with parliament's standards commissioner.

"I am alarmed by the way in which Islamophobia is being normalised in parliament," former Labour leader and Independent Alliance MP Jeremy Corbyn told MEE.

"My independent colleagues are dedicated representatives who serve all of the communities in their constituencies.

"This was not about banning Jewish people - it was about extremist football fans in the interest of public safety for all."

In response to Wilson's question in parliament on Monday, Home Office minister Jones said he was "right to say that confidence in policing is incredibly important. We need that confidence across all our communities, and we know that there is a lot of work to do in some areas in particular.

"I am not going to comment on what appears to be the case, but I can reassure him that, as I have said, the prime minister believes it was the wrong decision in the first place."

'Reckless'

Labour MP Kim Johnson told MEE Wilson's comments "were reckless, baseless and deeply divisive. The West Midlands Police made their own operational judgment, rooted in evidence and public safety - not in pressure from any MPs, and certainly not from one community."

Johnson added: "There is no evidence whatsoever to support his inflammatory claims. That language is dangerous. It fuels division, stokes Islamophobia and does nothing to support any of our communities who rightfully want reassurance and safety.

"Let's be absolutely clear: MPs from multiple backgrounds supported the West Midlands Police in taking action, and they did so because they believed it was the right decision - not because of sectarian pressure."

Exposed: The dirty campaign to paint Muslim MPs as anti-British

Read More »

Khan added that Wilson's language was "disgraceful, inflammatory, divisive, and deeply irresponsible".

"Here we are, facing a situation in which an MP openly used the phrase 'Muslim thugs'. He could easily have said 'thugs'. He chose not to. He attached a religion, an already targeted and vulnerable community, to criminality."

Khan further said: "At a time when Islamophobia is surging across the country and we have members of parliament - people who should be setting the standard for decency - using language that fuels hatred rather than confronts it.

"The silence in response to this MP's words is deafening. The lack of pushback is shameful. The inconsistency is intolerable.

"I will be lodging a formal complaint with the Standards Commissioner, because no community should be dehumanised in this way, and no MP should be permitted to use such divisive language without consequence.
Enough is enough."

The Sunday Times reported last week that Sebastiaan Meijer, a spokesman for the Amsterdam division of the national police force of the Netherlands, contradicted claims made by West Midlands Police about the behaviour of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam.

But West Midlands Police said it stood by its evaluation which "had public safety at its heart … We met with Dutch police on October 1, where information relating to that 2024 fixture was shared with us.

"Informed by information and intelligence, we concluded that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters - specifically the subgroup known as the Maccabi Fanatics - posed a credible threat to public safety."

The original police assessment records that Dutch police informed their British counterparts that "over 200" Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam last year were "linked to the Israel Defense Forces".