❓WHAT HAPPENED: British police banned Israeli Jews who support the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team from attending a Europa League game in Birmingham, England, fearing they could not protect them from violent local Muslims.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Muslim Members of Parliament (MPs) in Britain, including Zarah Sultana, Ayoub Khan, and Adnan Hussain.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The incident relates to an upcoming game in Birmingham, England, which hosts a large number of Muslims.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Next UEFA must ban all Israeli teams. We cannot have normalisation with genocide and apartheid.” – Zarah Sultana MP
🎯IMPACT: While defenders of the ban have attempted to paint it as an attempt to protect the local community from violent Israeli fans, parallel calls for a wider “cultural boycott” demonstrate their true motivations.
The recent decision by British police to ban Israeli Jews supporting the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team from attending a game in Birmingham, England, is being embraced by several Muslim Members of Parliament (MPs), who would like to see a general ban on Israeli Jews from participating in the Europa League. West Midlands Police believe they cannot guarantee the safety of Jewish fans in England’s second city, which is home to a large Muslim population, mostly of Pakistani origin.
Zarah Sultana MP, formerly of the governing Labour Party, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) should extend the ban to all Israeli teams, stating, “Next UEFA must ban all Israeli teams. We cannot have normalisation with genocide and apartheid.”
In a follow-up post, she added: “Apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics for 32 years. The same people who called Nelson Mandela a ‘terrorist’ now say we can’t boycott apartheid Israel. They were on the wrong side of history then—and they’re on the wrong side of history now. You don’t have ‘normal relations’ with genocide and apartheid. Boycott, divestment and sanctions until Palestine is free.”
Ayoub Khan MP also voiced his opinion against the participation of Maccabi Tel Aviv in international competitions like the Europa League, saying, “Maccabi Tel Aviv football club should not even be playing within this international competition.”
Adnan Hussain MP characterized such a ban as a”cultural boycott,” and like Sultana compared it to the treatment of South Africa under white minority rule: “Cultural boycotts were an instrumental arm involved in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa,” he insisted.
Sultana, Khan, and Hussain are part of a larger grouping of independent MPs representing areas with large Muslim populations, elected on anti-Israel platforms, currently attempting to form a new party alongside far-left former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
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