In a spate of a few days, a number of Jewish-Israeli-related events were cancelled in Europe due to safety concerns. The Jewish International Film Festival, which was supposed to be held in Malmo, Sweden, at the end of November, has been cancelled. The organizers did not manage to get a single cinema to host the film festival due to public and security fears.
Now, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have been informed that they will not be able to attend their team's Europa League match against Aston Villa on 6 November. Similar to the event in Malmo, the same reasons were given by the British police.
It is an absolute disgrace that across Europe, events which are associated with Jews or Israel are being cancelled. How have things come to this? How is it possible that Europe, which prides itself on being the champion of liberalism and the principle of the rule of law, is failing to uphold those very values?
What the restriction communicates
Rupert Lowe, the independent MP for Great Yarmouth, tweeted, “We should not be banning groups of football fans from Britain because Muslims might get offended.” No doubt, the ban is politically motivated and engineered by the so-called Pro-Palestine camp. A camp that is heavily staffed by Islamists and far-leftists who merged together and successfully managed to create a highly organized and well-funded force.
Riding on the “ Gaza-ticket” and the blood libel that Jews are “child killers” who are committing “Genocide” in Gaza, they successfully managed to manipulate and shape the political discourse in Western societies.
This leather alliance made hating the Jews a social trend, and I wonder where it ends if Western governments do not put a stop to it.
Since October 7, Western Europe has seen a drastic surge in antisemitic attacks. In 2023, the UK saw the highest figure of antisemitic incidents in decades! Prior to October 7, antisemitic attacks were committed by perpetrators who were described as white and non Muslim.
Following Hama’s terrorist attack, we can see an evident change in the offender profile across all major European capitals, including London, Paris, and Amsterdam.
Police records show that most offenders are non-white, namely, offenders with a Muslim-immigrant background.
Most politicians, police officials, similar to journalists and civil society activists, are reluctant to admit that antisemitism is now a pandemic in the United Kingdom and that it’s directly linked and fuelled by British Muslims' attitudes towards Israel and Jews in general.
They are frightened to speak openly about the threat Islamists and their tiny but very loud and visible far-left woke supporters pose to Western societies, to us all, and not only to the Jewish community.
They fear being labelled as racists, Islamophobes, or being cancelled.
Weeks before October 7, I was working in Israel as a producer for an Al Jazeera Channel documentary, “Avraham Stern – The Man, The Gang and the State.”
I had a good working relationship with the production team and the director, who were all Arab Muslims.
Shortly after Oct 7, upon returning to the UK, I was subjected to an avalanche of hate, including threats. I was called “a criminal Zionist” and even labelled on public forums, on X and Facebook, as “a liar” and “a traitor,” leading to some contacting those production companies I worked with, urging them not to acquire my expertise, for having close ties with the IDF, which is a total falsehood.
Today, across Britain, small and even major businesses are reluctant to do business with THE JEW because they are frightened by the highly organized and well-funded Pro-Palestine mob.
I live in Britain, and I have seen them storming businesses that stock Israeli goods, aggressively intimidating shoppers.
I have seen them disturbing public events, storming busy train stations with their loud, aggressive, hateful rhetoric against Israel and the Jewish people.
I have seen them march across London, across cities and towns in the UK, carrying placards equating Israelis to Nazis, calling for the annihilation of Israel, and openly glorifying Hamas and celebrating its ‘victorious Oct 7’ heinous atrocities.
The decision to ban Israeli fans from Britain was engineered by Ayoub Khan, a Muslim-British independent MP.
Shortly after the ban decision was announced, Khan tweeted a video message saying, “Well, excellent news for the people of Birmingham and most importantly the residents here in Aston. I launched a petition to oppose the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from coming here.”
Zarah Sultana, another Muslim-British MP, tweeted her jubilation, “Next UEFA must ban all Israeli teams. We cannot have normalisation with genocide and apartheid.” Today, in Britain, there are more than 20 MPs, including Labour backbenchers, who won their seats thanks to the Gaza agenda. Ayoub Khan was one of those who ran his election campaign on a pro-Gaza ticket.
The Israeli football fan ban shows that Britain has failed its Jewish community, but it has also failed the overwhelming majority of the good British people.
The ban exposes the depressing state of governmental bodies, including the police. The message is clear and loud: The Islamist agenda has won; sorry, we can’t safeguard Jewish football visitors.
For years, not only the UK but also major European countries have been suffering from serious problems with Islamist and far-left extremism. Their violent conduct and hateful antisemitic rhetoric were left to fester unchecked for years.
Last year, the Henry Jackson Society released a detailed 50-page report titled “British Muslims and General Public Attitudes Polling.”
Their report showed that “old” antisemitic tropes are widespread among British Muslims. Of course, most of them denied that they are antisemites, but rather that they are anti-Israel. But a close analysis of the data showed their hatred or opposition to Israel tends to underpin antisemitism.
The report also reveals the vast divide in opinions and attitudes between the general British public and British Muslims on politics, British society, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and antisemitism.
For the sake of the principle of the rule of law, I hope the democratically elected British government will reverse the ban and put a stop to this nonsense once and for all.
Suzan Quitaz, a Kurdish-Swedish journalist and researcher on Middle Eastern affairs.