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

South Africa was banned from taking part in international sport because of apartheid.

Russia is currently banned because of Ukraine

I think it is important in order to send a message both to the government and its citizens.

Oreo

A large proportion I bet RamblingRose22

Wyllow3 What has Hitler got to do with the situation at Villa Park?
Politics shouldn’t intrude into sport, it’s all wrong.

Probably because so much that happened in the 1930’s is happening now and we need to learn from history ( but never do ).

Thanks Lathyrus, I misread your post. I thought you had read that one of our Posters had said that.

A very good point Lathyrus3 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I just saw it on one of the placards a protester was holding up maremiaand it gave me pause for thought.

Obviously the placard holder either regarded the football players as killers or the people who’d turned up to support them as killers or both. Because there weren’t any actual killers there but she identified them as such.

So guilt by association or nationality? Which is what some of the replies to my first post said I think. Not antisemitism because it was Israelis, but still right because they were Israelis.

Now the thing is will that be applied across the board. Are the people of Gaza killers because their government has killed civilians?

And if it doesn’t apply to them why should it be applied to all Israelis- or just to football team and its supporters.

Or should people actually examine why they would apply it to one set of people and not to another?

Oreo

You’re really confusing posters with your penchant for calling Israel ‘Palestine’ you know.
The professional team players from Tel Aviv don’t represent anything that Israel does, and there’s no boycott in the UK of anything from Israel in any case.
In my view politics should never affect sports.

Guess you'd forgotten that some poster or posters (that won't even admit to doing so) scream for a post calling it inverted commas....common name....inverted commas to be censored off - and it is!!!!!!

It would help if the censor/s would stop....

The team players are from various countries and religions in the Tel Aviv side.

A large proportion I bet RamblingRose22

Wyllow3 What has Hitler got to do with the situation at Villa Park?
Politics shouldn’t intrude into sport, it’s all wrong.

I did see a banner saying "Kick Israel out of FIFA".
It is hard on the Maccabi team. Their fans have really not helped them at all by their behaviour.
As other football teams have no influence on their respective governments then I doubt Maccabi does either and some players may even be anti Netanyahu?
Feelings do run high where Israel is concerned and there will be protests wherever they go.

I've struggled to "unravel" some of this. I don't claim to have any special expertise.

I doubt if the Israeli football team wanted to do anything more than play football on Wednesday night. The team are not responsible for the behaviour of their fans or for the policies of the Israeli Government. Given that the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were not allowed to attend the match, what were the protests really about?

I have seen people (including Jewish people) being accused of anti-semitism just because they disagree with the Israeli Government or what the IDF have been doing in Gaza. This is another sort of conflation because of the inflammatory and polarising nature of any discussions about the war in Gaza.

There are plenty of Israelis who also disagree with their Government and the way the war in Gaza has been conducted and who sympathise with the plight of the Gazans who have been governed by a bunch of terrorists for so long and so many of whom have lost their homes. Does that make such Israelis anti-semitic too?

However, those who support the Palestinians and use the expression "From the River to the Sea", despite claims that the words mean something else, are widely regarded as anti-Israel. I have seen that these words are generally used by those supporting Hamas and others who wish to see the destruction of Israel once and for all. For all we know, the majority of Palestinians just want their own homeland as a separate country (i.e. a two-state solution) without the destruction of Israel.

I wonder what proportion of "pro-Palestinian" protesters want the destruction of Israel and a one-state solution.

Was it the protestors who were shouting that Lathyrus?

Oreo

Smileless2012

Thank you bmacca it's good to see a post from someone who was actually there especially with such an inflammatory thread title; shrieking and yelling .

Just true, not inflammatory.
Didn’t you hear the racket coming from the crowds waving Palestine flags around 6:30 onwards on tv?
Politics has no place in sport! The Tel Aviv players have nothing to do with either the Israeli government or their army.
Calling them ‘killers’ is both untrue and pathetic.

Oh please Oreo - come on!

- much as we dont like it, politics has been in sports for very very long time.

*Hitlers 1936 Summer Olympics*: they were used by the Nazi regime as a propaganda tool to showcase a "peaceful and tolerant" Germany while camouflaging its antisemitic and expansionist agenda.

To some extent, this was successful, propaganda wise: it gave British Facsists a boost for their anti semitism and anti-left views

But they were also marked by the American athlete Jesse Owens, a Black sprinter who won four gold medals, which contradicted Hitler's theories of Aryan racial superiority. (yes!)

If people think there is conflation re Jews/Israelis, wasn’t the poster saying “No killers in football” conflating Israeli government with a football team?

And yet several posters seemed to think they were the same thing.
I’d quote those posts but my iPhone won’t do it.

So the Israeli footballers are killers because they are Israeli? Not Jewish but Israeli. So killers by nationality?

Oreo

You’re really confusing posters with your penchant for calling Israel ‘Palestine’ you know.
The professional team players from Tel Aviv don’t represent anything that Israel does, and there’s no boycott in the UK of anything from Israel in any case.
In my view politics should never affect sports.

I assume you know the history of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Oreo

There are usually several Arab Muslims on the team btw.

There's one, Sayed Abu Farkhi, who is Israeli.

www.transfermarkt.co.uk/maccabi-tel-aviv/kader/verein/119

eazybee

People supporting Palestine who were chanting and waving enormous Palestine flags.
Why is this allowed?
It had absolutely nothing to do with a football match.

We all have a right to protest. Do you think we should all lose that right or only certain religions or ethnicities?

Yes, who is getting which piece of Gaza?
The locals?

Going back to rebuilding Gaza. Palestinian architects have drawn up plans for how they want Gaza to be. There are several other plans which will hopefully be considered rather than Trump's plan.

There are usually several Arab Muslims on the team btw.

You’re really confusing posters with your penchant for calling Israel ‘Palestine’ you know.
The professional team players from Tel Aviv don’t represent anything that Israel does, and there’s no boycott in the UK of anything from Israel in any case.
In my view politics should never affect sports.

eazybee

People supporting Palestine who were chanting and waving enormous Palestine flags.
Why is this allowed?
It had absolutely nothing to do with a football match.

Have I got this wrong then - ie there was no team from there playing?

Since they were there = yep....it has plenty to do with a football match.

Sport cannot be separated from the rest of life. Add in the fact that protest at sports events was part of what (had to) happen back when with regard to South African apartheid.

If we let that lot operate at their own evaluation of themselves (ie as normal people entitled to someone else's country) then what do you see as another way to make it plain to them "Clear off back to your own respective countries - and leave Palestine alone and stop stealing it section by section"?

Serious question - just how do we kick them out of Palestine? Can you think of better ways to "put them back in their box"?

People supporting Palestine who were chanting and waving enormous Palestine flags.
Why is this allowed?
It had absolutely nothing to do with a football match.

No Kate not necessarily but given that area it’s probable they were from Birmingham.The organisers were hoping for thousands to attend but that didn’t happen.

Not necessarily locals Oreo.

Locals aren't allowed to go about in their own town?