{"id":15326,"date":"2026-03-26T13:54:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cameraoncampus.org\/?p=15326"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:04:21","slug":"keep-football-out-of-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cameraoncampus.org\/he\/blog\/keep-football-out-of-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Football Out of Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 6th of November 2025, English football side Aston Villa faced off against Maccabi Tel Aviv in a UEFA Europa League Match. West Midlands police banned\u00a0Israeli and Jewish<\/a>\u00a0supporters from attending the game, with the police claiming that the community surrounding the stadium wasn\u2019t safe for fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv.\u00a0\u00a0Local politicians<\/a>\u00a0later admitted in January of 2026 that\u00a0Jewish and Zionist fans would be targete<\/a>d if they attended the game, and there was pressure from the Muslim community to call off the game entirely.<\/p>\n

Pro-Israel Students at the nearby University Of Birmingham hadn\u2019t felt safe weeks leading up to the match precisely because of how authorities both inside and outside the university have enabled antisemitism dressed as \u201ccritique of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anti-Israel groups\u00a0published articles<\/a>\u00a0encouraging protests around the city leading up to the game, which naturally caused students around the City and the University of Birmingham to feel unsettled. The\u00a0police<\/a>\u00a0have shown that they are simply unable to protect Jews and Israelis. If they struggled to contain and knew certain groups want and are willing to attack Jews for simply being themselves, how are they able to protect Jewish Students on campus?<\/p>\n

The Aston Villa Vs Maccabi Tel Aviv game showed that hatred towards Zionists and Jews isn\u2019t going away anytime soon.\u00a0Social media<\/a>\u00a0was used as a tool to help promote protesting all around the city, including on campuses.<\/p>\n

This sort of toxic behaviour has become the norm in UK schools, where any behaviour said to be conducted in the name of freeing Palestine is supported, while pro-Israel activism is suspect. The idea that to keep the peace, authorities need to rely on\u00a0false<\/a>\u00a0and AI-generated evidence to justify discriminating against Jews because local Arab anti-Zionists are essentially treated as an unalterable force of nature is a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n

The longer our community leaders enable this behaviour, the longer this problem will persist. Jewish students are simply fed up, with us simply wanting answers from the University on how we can deal with situations such as the toxic behaviour that we see on campus. Games such as the Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv game are meant to be games that bring people together, but instead spread anti-Israel and Jewish hatred onto campuses such as the University of Birmingham.<\/p>\n

The idea that a football game can do so much damage to a student\u2019s life is frightening, and rallies from such attacks have not been dealt with. University is meant to be a place where students can express themselves but fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv, where some are Students on campus, are not able to show their true colours, making the beautiful game not so beautiful anymore.<\/p>\n

Since the October 7th attack that took place at the Nova Music Festival and Kibbutzim in the South of Israel, Jewish students have experienced\u00a0increased\u00a0<\/a>hatred on campus. Make no mistake, those incidents weren\u2019t perpetrated by neo-nazis.<\/p>\n

The failures of the West Midlands police show that students who believe in the existence of the State of Israel are not safe in Birmingham, with students becoming less likely to show off their identity because of the resources that Jews and Zionists are receiving on UK campuses.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published in The Times of Israel.<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 6th of November 2025, English football side Aston Villa faced off against Maccabi Tel Aviv in a UEFA Europa League Match. 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