Pro Palestinian crowds shrieking and yelling at the Aston Villa Park Stadium

Love the Police horses wearing sparkly garb ( not familiar with horsey tack)😃🐴

700 police on duty tonight.

Officers had been drafted in from Staffordshire, the Met, Humberside, West Mercia and (probably) Warwickshire.

Thankfully just six arrests and eventually the Villa fans got into the ground but not before they were hassled and pushed around and had to argue with police.The protesters were far too close to the stadium.
In the end there wasn’t up to 5,000 as the protestors wanted but police estimated hundreds. It was still a very expensive policing event and high time all the protests and marches ended, there’s a deal for peace in Gaza now.

There were two lots of protesters.

Gaza supporters and Israeli supporters - in fact the Israeli supporters hired flat backed lorries to carry the banners etc.

All seemed peacefully protested. There is always someone who gets carried away though, but on the whole well policed and protested.

The decision to stop the Israeli football fans was a correct one.

The flat bed lorries carried electronic messages about saying no to antisemitism.

There's a deal for pieces of Gaza just now.

What peace deal in Gaza Oreo?

There was no serious disruption despite huge crowds. Pro Palestine and Pro Israel groups attended.

Until the situation in Gaza is settled and no more killing there will be protesters.

The noise from the pro Palestinians was deafening but thanks to a huge police presence just noise.
Think what two years of policing these events have cost our country! France was right to ban any costly and divisive marches there, we should have done the same.

It’s not just the money, it’s created massive amounts of anti semitism and also anti Muslim feelings.

Politics has no place in sport.

Just saw it on the news, a handful were arrested before the match from both sides, but on the whole it passed off peacefully thank goodness.
And Birmingham police have made a statement to say that the decision to ban Maccabi supporters was based upon reports of hooliganism in Europe and not anything to do with a possible pro Palestinian presence.

And now the match is over, and the local fans, hopefully, safely home.

Of course they have.

Maremia

And now the match is over, and the local fans, hopefully, safely home.

Indeed. A sigh of relief from all am sure.

It is good to see that our democratic right to protest peacefully remains watertight.

The protests will undoubtedly continue in London and elsewhere all the time death and injustice is continuing for the Palestinians.

There is still violence and land theft continuing in West Bank and Gaza remains a moonscape. Utter tragedy, particularly when you realise that those people in Gaza are there because they were violently removed from their farms and homes in 1948. They have nothing to thank Israel for.

Oreo

Of course they have.

With all due respect Oreo you are flogging a dead horse here.

It is absolutely right that we have right to protest, however if you think protest like these are going to be anything but absolutely disastrous for this country then you are incredibly naive.

I was pondering the banner that said “Keep killers out of football”

As far as I know, none of the Israeli football team have killed anyone.
Presumably then the poster has equated the Israeli government and army actions with the football players who have killed no one, just because they are both Jewish .

Would you say that was antisemitism?

Galaxy

It is absolutely right that we have right to protest, however if you think protest like these are going to be anything but absolutely disastrous for this country then you are incredibly naive.

?

Lathyrus3

I was pondering the banner that said “Keep killers out of football”

As far as I know, none of the Israeli football team have killed anyone.
Presumably then the poster has equated the Israeli government and army actions with the football players who have killed no one, just because they are both Jewish .

Would you say that was antisemitism?

Difficult one, I think it is cloaked antisemitism.

Definitely not in the interest of good sportsmanship.

Lathyrus3

I was pondering the banner that said “Keep killers out of football”

As far as I know, none of the Israeli football team have killed anyone.
Presumably then the poster has equated the Israeli government and army actions with the football players who have killed no one, just because they are both Jewish .

Would you say that was antisemitism?

Not quite! They are both Israeli.

Lathyrus3

I was pondering the banner that said “Keep killers out of football”

As far as I know, none of the Israeli football team have killed anyone.
Presumably then the poster has equated the Israeli government and army actions with the football players who have killed no one, just because they are both Jewish .

Would you say that was antisemitism?

No. There's a difference between being anti Israel because of the killing of Palestinians and razing their infrastructure to the ground and anti-Semitism.