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UK Gov’t Adviser: Police ‘Conflated’ Intelligence to Support Ban Against Maccabi Tel Aviv Soccer Fans
Soccer Football – UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – Nov. 6, 2025, Aston Villa’s Ian Maatsen scores their first goal. Photo: Action Images via Reuters
The British government’s independent adviser on antisemitism said on Monday that the West Midlands Police (WMP) department “conflated” evidence and used “inaccurate” intelligence when making the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a Europa League soccer match in Birmingham last month.
“Some of the intelligence is not very good. Some of it’s not intelligence at all,” John Mann told the Home Affairs Committee in the British Parliament. “And the tactics used could have been better.”
Mann spoke to Parliament right before West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford, Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara, and Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster were questioned by the parliamentary committee about their move to ban Israeli soccer fans from the match between Maccabi and the UK’s Aston Villa at Villa Park on Nov. 6. The decision was made by police in collaboration with Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG), a panel that includes Birmingham City Council. The match last month had heavy police presence and concluded with 11 arrests but no serious disorderly conduct.
WMP made its evaluation and decision about the ban based largely on intelligence given to the force by Dutch police commanders about violence that took place surrounding a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Netherlands last year, the MPs were told on Monday.
In November 2024, Maccabi fans were violently attacked by fans of the Dutch soccer team Ajax followed their match in Amsterdam. During the premeditated and coordinated violence, Maccabi fans were chased with knives and sticks in the streets, run over by cars, physically beaten, and forced by their attackers to say, “Free Palestine.” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”
Before the British police officials spoke to the Home Affairs Committee this week, Mann was questioned and said he “struggled” with some “inaccurate” details in the West Midlands police intelligence report that supported their banning of Maccabi fans. Last week the national police force of the Netherlands told The Times that several claims in the report were false and issued a statement explaining what it told West Midlands police.
Mann said the West Midlands intelligence report “conflates” facts and mentions several details that simply “didn’t happen” in relation to the Ajax-Maccabi match in Amsterdam on Nov. 8, 2024. He gave one example about a Maccabi and West Ham match mentioned in the report that never took place. Guildford admitted that it was noted in the report “due to some social media scrapping,” which included a “search through social media to see what’s trending.”
Mann said the intelligence report also falsely claimed Maccabi fans ripped down several Palestinian flags on game day in Amsterdam and threw members of the public in into a river. It further contained the false accusation that 5,000 Dutch police officers were deployed in response.
The report went on to falsely state that pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soccer fans were fighting in the streets of Amsterdam throughout the day on Nov. 6, 2024, according to Mann. He explained that reports from Amsterdam officials clearly indicate the violence only started after the match ended, and there was only one reported incident of a Palestinian flag being pulled down, on the day before the game. The report also referred to multiple incidents against taxi drivers, when there was only one incident the night before the match, Mann stated. “The suggestion that Macabi Tel Aviv fans were going around Amsterdam trying to find local people specifically from the Muslim community going into Muslim areas – that didn’t happen,” he added.
“I’ve looked at the intelligence report of the West Midlands Police and I struggle with some of the intelligence within it, including the intelligence about Amsterdam. It doesn’t concur with the discussions I had in Amsterdam and the facts I saw in Amsterdam,” Mann said. “Some of the stuff in the report simply doesn’t match the Amsterdam [police] reports and I think the evidence has been fitted to try and get a solution because obviously [if] you don’t have the Israeli fans, there’s no conflict … A banning of fans needs to be properly intelligence-led. The facts have slightly changed to fit the decision.”
“What you’re trying to say quite clearly is that is that the facts have slightly changed to fit the decision?” an MP asked Mann. “Correct. Correct. That would be a summary of what’s gone on here,” he replied.
In response, Guildford defended the ban against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, saying the decision “wasn’t taken lightly” and was made after a “careful assessment.” The ban was the “best way of maximizing the safety” of everyone involved, O’Hara saud. “Had we allowed the fans and it had gone wrong I feel that I would be sitting here again anyway.”
He also denied “fitting” evidence to support the ban and discredited suggestions of a “conspiracy” within the police force to target Maccabi fans, saying they were “completely wrong and misleading.”
“We’ve acted with integrity. My assurance to yourselves as a panel is that we were not influenced in any way, shape, or form by anybody politically,” he argued. “We did our service to the best of our ability, and the officers acted in line with their training and professionalism.”
Guildford told the Home Affairs Committee that his chief inspector had a virtual meeting on Oct. 1 with three Dutch police commanders and discussed the violence last year when Maccabi played Ajax in Amsterdam. Guildford said he trusted what his chief inspector was told during the meeting and the information they received from Dutch police “swayed” the police force’s assessment not to allow Maccabi fans to attend Villa Park for the game on Nov. 6. The information provided by Dutch police “certainly influenced the way our assessment was heading,” Guildford said.
“The information provided from the Dutch was very, very clear in terms of they reflected on the days before, during, and after the match as a result of clashes between the Maccabi ultras and the local Muslim community,” he explained. “In terms of what we were told, the ultras were very well organized, militaristic in the way that they operated. They attacked members of the local community, including taxi drivers. Tore down flags. People were thrown into the river.”
He added that the Dutch commanders were “unequivocal” that they “would never want to have Maccabi Tel Aviv playing in Amsterdam again in the future.” He also said that Dutch police “probably underestimated the level of threat and risk” from Israeli soccer fans and changed their account of what they told British counterparts in the virtual meeting on Oct. 1 because they were under political pressure.
O’Hara said Sebastiaan Meijer, a spokesman for the Amsterdam division of the Dutch police, “naysayed” some of the intelligence and made it “very clear they’re under a lot of pressure, in their words, from City Hall.”
Mann told MPs he suggested to West Midlands police and the Birmingham City Council alternative solutions before they announced the ban against Maccabi fans, which included ideas like having Maccabi supporters escorted by police in and out of the stadium to avoid any confrontations. Another suggestion he made was changing the game’s kickoff to an earlier time in the day so visiting Maccabi fans did not have to stay overnight in Birmingham, which could reduce the risk of violence ensuing in the area surrounding the stadium. Mann also told the committee he talked to both Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv regarding the concerns ahead of the match, and said both teams handled it “maturely and sensibility” and were “extremely cooperative.”
“I was surprised at the decision to ban the fans. I don’t think that was the most appropriate decision nor the most sensible decision,” Mann noted.
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‘Marty Supreme’ and everything else Jewish at this year’s Academy Awards
At last year’s Academy Awards, Anora — a frenetic, somewhat ambiguously Jewish look at a Jewish enclave of New York, took home best picture, original screenplay, director and actress for its Jewish lead Mikey Madison. This year, we have a film that feels, in some ways, quite parallel, while cranking the Yiddishkeit to 11: Josh Safdie’s breathless picaresque Marty Supreme, set on the Lower East Side, is up for best picture and its star, Timothée Chalamet is a favorite for best actor.
There’s also Blue Moon, Richard Linklater’s portrait of Jewish lyricist Lorenz Hart’s breakup with composer Richard Rodgers (Ethan Hawke is up for best actor). And One Battle After Another, a campy and absurdist satire about the infiltration of white supremacists in the U.S. government, is poised to have a massive night, with the blockbuster Sinners serving as its main competition.
That all goes to say that it’s another great year for Jewish stories at the Oscars, with some really compelling fodder for discussion about the place that Jews occupy today in arts and media. What stories are we telling and how are they received?
Here, as ever, the Forward culture team is here to break it all down for you, live as it unfolds. Of course, we cover Jewish movies all year. But at the Academy Awards, we get to see how the rest of the world feels about these movies. We will be updating this story with our thoughts throughout the ceremony.
Traditionally, as we begin these Oscars roundtables, we discuss what we’re all wearing and eating. What’ve we got?
Olivia: brown sweater and jeans; no food but aggressively chewing mint gum. I will later be drinking some of the seltzer I got from Brooklyn’s Seltzer Fest today.
Mira: I did a bunch of cooking for the week so I have vegetarian avgolemono soup and Alison Roman’s fennel salad. (I’m obsessed with this salad.) I am proudly wearing hard pants.
PJ: I am reheating some chicken from last night. Wearing a blue sweater with a little toggle and jeans. How many of Stellan Skarsgård’s large adult sons are here? In other l’dor v’dor news, Bill Pullman just mentioned how they filmed the Spaceballs sequel with his son Lewis.
Talya: I believe I’m wearing the exact same sweater I donned for this event last year — where’s my award for consistency? And, as always, sweatpants; I cannot comprehend suffering through this event in jeans.
Discussion of Israeli-Palestinian protests on the red carpet
Mira: Love a toggle. Speaking of outfits, anyone have thoughts on Odessa A’zion’s spangled red carpet set? She is one of the only people who styles herself on the red carpet, which I do respect.
Olivia: A’Zion’s outfit kind of looks like she forgot to tie whatever was supposed to be holding it up. I don’t think it looks bad, just like it’s falling down.
PJ: It wouldn’t look out of place hanging from the window of a VW van with shag carpet and some Tibetan prayer flags.
Mira: Of note, the past several years have seen protesters approaching people on their way into the ceremony, and a lot of pins on the red carpet taking a stance on the Israel-Hamas war, largely pro-Palestinian ones. We’re seeing less of that this year — though not none. Javier Bardem posted a photo of him wearing a pin reading “no to the war” in Spanish, along with another pin featuring Handala, a cartoon boy considered a symbol of Palestinians. The team of The Voice of Hind Rajab, nominated for best foreign film, are also wearing red pins with a white dove.
PJ: Those have replaced the red hand ArtistsforCeasefire pins, which some said recalled the bloody palms of Palestinians who killed IDF soldiers in 2000.
Olivia: A reporter for ABC in a pre-recorded segment asked executive producers and showrunners for the ceremony Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan if anything would get bleeped, such as mentions of Trump, Israel and Palestine. Recently, the BBC removed director Akinola Davies Jr’s call for a “Free Palestine” from their BAFTA stream. Kapoor asserted that the night’s production team supports free speech, but we’ll see what transpires over the course of the night.
The post ‘Marty Supreme’ and everything else Jewish at this year’s Academy Awards appeared first on The Forward.
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US Sends Additional Arms to Israel to Sustain Iran Operations
The first of two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors is launched during a successful intercept test. Photo: US Army.
i24 News – The United States has recently increased shipments of munitions to Israel to support ongoing Israeli air operations against Iran.
According to reports broadcast by the public radio network Kan Reshet Bet, several weapons deliveries have arrived in Israel in recent days as part of what officials describe as an ongoing airlift aimed at sustaining the pace of military strikes.
Since the start of the campaign, Israeli forces are believed to have dropped more than 11,000 bombs on targets across Iran.
The shipments come as reports emerge about a potential shortage of ballistic missile interceptors in Israel. US officials told the news outlet Semafor that Israel’s interceptor stockpiles have been heavily used during the conflict.
According to those sources, Washington had already been aware for months that supplies could become strained, though it remains unclear whether the United States would be willing to share its own interceptor reserves. Israeli officials have since rejected claims that such a shortage exists.
Unlike the Iron Dome, which is designed to intercept short-range rockets and projectiles, ballistic missile interceptors serve as Israel’s primary defense against long-range missile threats. Fighter jets can also be used to attempt interceptions, though this method is considered a supplementary measure to missile defense systems.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has taken additional budgetary steps to support the war effort. During an overnight vote between Saturday and Sunday, ministers approved a roughly 1 billion shekel reduction across various ministry budgets to help finance classified military purchases linked to Operation “Roar of the Lion.”
The government had already approved a 3 percent cut in ministry budgets, a move expected to increase the defense budget by approximately 30 billion shekels as the conflict continues.
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Pope Leo Decries ‘Atrocious Violence’ in Iran War, Urges Ceasefire
Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer from a window of the Apostolic Palace, at the Vatican, March 15, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Matteo Minnella
Pope Leo made an impassioned plea on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in the expanding Iran war, lamenting “atrocious violence” that he said had killed thousands of non-combatants and caused suffering across the region.
As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its third week, the first US pope warned that violence would not bring the justice, stability and peace that the peoples of the region long for.
“For two weeks, the peoples of the Middle East have been suffering the atrocious violence of war,” the pope said at his weekly Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.
“In the name of Christians in the Middle East and of all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict: Cease fire!” Pope Leo said.
IDEA THAT WAR SOLVES PROBLEMS IS ‘ABSURD’
Leo added that the situation in Lebanon – ravaged by a war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah – was also a cause of “great concern.”
“I hope for paths of dialogue that can support the country’s authorities in implementing lasting solutions to the serious crisis currently underway, for the common good of all the Lebanese people,” the pope said.
During a visit to a Rome parish later, the pope said war could never resolve problems and hit out at people who invoke God to justify killings.
“Today many of our brothers and sisters in the world are suffering because of violent conflicts, caused by the absurd claim that problems and disagreements can be resolved through war, when instead we must engage in unceasing dialogue for peace,” he said during his homily.
“Some even go so far as to invoke the name of God to justify these choices of death, but God cannot be enlisted by darkness. Rather, He always comes to bring light, hope and peace to humanity.”