A senior police officer in the United Kingdom has apologized for falsely claiming that the Jewish community of Birmingham supported the authorities’ ban last month on Israeli soccer fans in the city, a British newspaper reported Sunday.
“Please can I apologize and make very clear that it was not my intention to imply that there were members of the Jewish community who had explicitly expressed support for the exclusion of Maccabi fans,” West Midlands Police assistant chief constable Mike O’Hara wrote in a letter to Jewish community leaders, The Sunday Times reported.
Leaders of British Jews have described the police’s conduct in connection with the match as indicative of broader problems involving dishonesty and bias.
O’Hara’s letter comes during an internal probe into a different scandal involving the police ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at a match between that team and the local Aston Villa team. British police claimed that the ban was based on a warning by Dutch police about Maccabi fans from last year, but Dutch police sources denied issuing that warning.
“Having re-watched the footage, I am sorry if my response has created confusion by suggesting members of the Jewish community had expressed support for the ban. From my perspective, that is not the case and I will ensure this is clearly articulated when I respond to the further written questions we are anticipating,” O’Hara wrote in the letter.
During the internal panel’s questioning of O’Hara last week, Committee Chair Karen Bradley asked: “On the community impact assessment, were members of the communities saying that they did not want the Maccabi fans there, and did that include any Jewish representatives?”
O’Hara replied: “yes.” He was then asked: “Were [there] Jewish community representatives who said that they did not want the Maccabi fans there?”
He replied: “Feedback was documented within the community impact assessment, that was clear that there were a range of faiths, backgrounds and ethnicities that were very concerned about this fixture.”
This led to consternation within Birmingham’s Jewish community, The Sunday Times reported, prompting the apology and correction.
The ban on Maccabi fans, which followed protests by Muslim and other anti-Israel activists, was based on a confidential report prepared by the Midlands Police about an incident in the Dutch capital on Nov. 8-9, 2024.
Dozens of Israelis, who were in the city to support the Maccabi soccer team’s match against the local Ajax club, were assaulted, including at least one who jumped into a freezing canal to escape attackers. They told him he had to say “free Palestine” if he wanted to be allowed out of the water.
Yet, according to an article that ran in The Sunday Times last month, the Midlands Police officers referred to the Israelis as the aggressors, to justify the police’s recommendation not to allow Maccabi fans at the game in Villa Park. Police classified the event as “high risk,” due to potential “violent clashes and hate crime offenses” that might occur during the match.
A Dutch police spokesperson told the paper that the information that had reportedly appeared in the British police’s confidential report was inaccurate.
The West Midlands Police defended its claims last month, telling the newspaper that its “evaluation had public safety at its heart.” A police spokesperson added: “We met with Dutch police on October 1,” and “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.”
