Document:Starmer’s Sweet and Tender Hooligans
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in December 2019
| Now Tommy Robinson says he’ll come to Birmingham to march in support of Maccabi Tel Aviv. Whatever happens that day — every provocation, every act of violence — will be on Keir Starmer. |
Article by Zarah Sultana dated 20 October 2025Subjects: Keir Starmer, Tommy Robinson, IDF, Islamophobia
Source: Tribune (Link)
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Starmer’s Sweet and Tender Hooligans
Last night, the Israeli police postponed the derby between Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv football clubs because of extreme violence and rioting on the streets of the city. Israeli police claimed that there was a ‘risk to human life’ to local residents, and over 12 people were seriously injured.
In just a few weeks, Aston Villa are due to face Maccabi in Birmingham. On Friday, Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group announced that, following an assessment of ‘physical and safety factors’, no away fans will be permitted to attend. West Midlands Police also designated the fixture as high risk, citing ‘current intelligence and previous incidents’.
For those familiar with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s supporters, none of this should come as a surprise. The club’s ultras are synonymous with violence and virulent racism — so much so that even in Israel they’re regarded as one of the most extreme fan groups. In one chant, they openly declared themselves ‘the country’s most racist team’.
Last year, those same supporters rampaged through Amsterdam, clashing with residents. The incident was initially misreported as an unprovoked ‘antisemitic pogrom’, a narrative eagerly amplified by Israeli and Western politicians until the truth emerged: it was far more complex.
The night before that match, Maccabi fans allegedly tore down and burned Palestinian flags, shouted ‘Death to Arabs’ and other racist chants, vandalised property and assaulted people they believed to be Arab.
If you follow football, the outrage over this ban — from the UK government, numerous MPs, and much of the media — feels absurd. Away fan restrictions at high-risk matches are standard practice.
Just last month, France banned Ajax supporters from travelling to Marseille. Eintracht Frankfurt fans are barred from attending an upcoming match in Naples on 4 November — two days before Villa’s fixture with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
So why the hysteria over this one? Why is the government intervening to overturn a standard policing decision? Because this isn’t about football. It’s about politics.
The state of Israel has spent the past two years committing genocide in Gaza. Even under an alleged ceasefire, it continues to bomb, starve, besiege and abduct Palestinians. For decades, it has imposed a brutal apartheid system — imprisoning children without charge, torturing detainees and pursuing ethnic cleansing as state policy.
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s fan culture reflects that same violence. Their chants include lines like ‘May your village burn’ and ‘Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there.’ Their hooliganism isn’t separate from Israeli militarism — many of these fans are active or former soldiers who’ve taken part in the assault on Gaza. They should be investigated for war crimes the moment they step onto British soil, not welcomed into our stadiums.
And Britain isn’t an innocent bystander. Our government has armed Israel, provided diplomatic cover and denied that genocide is even happening. Until recently, RAF planes were conducting daily surveillance flights over Gaza — reportedly sharing intelligence with the Israeli military in real time.
Keir Starmer’s Labour government can’t be honest about Maccabi Tel Aviv because that would mean being honest about Israel. So instead, they smear Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group and any local MP who defends a decision that keeps their communities safe. Ministers know their position is indefensible — deception is all they have left.
The mainstream media has been their willing accomplice, parroting unverified Israeli claims while ignoring the mountain of evidence showing sadistic violence and genocidal intent. Politicians and journalists alike have trafficked in racist narratives, portraying Palestinians as barbaric, irrational, and less than human.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government fuels Islamophobia in Britain, knowing that if people fear or hate Muslims, they’ll care less about Palestinians. It spreads propaganda framing mosques and Muslim communities as threats to ‘Western civilisation’, and has even collaborated with far-right figures like Tommy Robinson — whom Keir Starmer claims to find ‘abhorrent’, yet whose far-right talking points he repeats, echoing the fascist language once spewed by Enoch Powell.
By embracing Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime — rolling out the red carpet for President Isaac Herzog, whose genocidal statements are cited in the ICJ case against Israel — this Labour government has shown just how little it values the safety of its own people. Defending the right of a group of violent, racist football thugs to march through Birmingham fits that pattern perfectly.
We see what’s happening in Gaza. The polls show it too. Millions of us refuse to accept genocide in our name. Week after week, we’ve marched, spoken out, and organised to hold this government to account. We’ll keep going until apartheid falls, Palestine is free, and everyone complicit in genocide — including British politicians — faces justice in The Hague.
Let’s be clear: Israeli football teams should not play in the UK. Apartheid South Africa was rightly excluded from international sport for over thirty years. It was a moral duty — and it worked. Boycotts, divestment, and sanctions helped end a racist regime. The genocidal apartheid state of Israel must face the same consequences.
The UK must cut all diplomatic ties. The Israeli embassy in London should be closed, and its ambassador expelled. You cannot maintain relations with a state committing genocide.
MPs who once backed bans on Russian teams but now insist we ‘keep politics out of sport’ only expose their hypocrisy. The same establishment that branded Nelson Mandela a terrorist now cheers on the terrorists of the IDF.
To everyone who sees through the gaslighting: you’re not alone. I’ve heard from countless people who feel they’re losing their minds — watching a genocide livestreamed to the world, while politicians talk about it as if it’s ‘complex’ or ‘tragic on both sides’. The uproar over the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban feels like psychological warfare.
But it isn’t working. Just like attempts to criminalise protest and label peaceful activists as terrorists, this is desperation from a government running out of time — and out of truth.
The Labour government is ignoring public opinion too — according to YouGov polling, the majority of Britons support the ban rather than oppose it. This isn’t about football. It’s about the moral test of our time. And when the world demanded to know where Britain stood — some chose silence, some chose to enable genocide, and others chose solidarity. We know which side we’re on.
Now Tommy Robinson says he’ll come to Birmingham to march in support of Maccabi Tel Aviv. Whatever happens that day — every provocation, every act of violence — will be on Keir Starmer.
