Independent and Green politicians have backed a ban on Israeli fans attending a football match in Birmingham and called for a sporting boycott of the country.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have criticised the decision of West Midlands Police to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending next month’s match against Aston Villa on safety grounds.
Sir Keir Starmer called the decision “wrong”, while Kemi Badenoch branded it a “national disgrace”.
But left-wing politicians have welcomed the ban, with some calling for the wider exclusion of Israeli teams from international competitions, similar to the sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa.
Birmingham Perry Barr MP Ayoub Khan said the match had posed “latent safety risks”, adding the “political dynamics” surrounding the match “cannot be ignored”.
Mr Khan, along with fellow Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, had initiated a petition calling for the match to be cancelled, held in a third country or played behind closed doors.
The petition said allowing the match to go ahead would send “a message of normalisation and indifference to mass atrocities” and accused Tel Aviv fans of causing “serious disruption and violence” during previous matches.
It said: “Their arrival in Aston – a diverse and predominantly Muslim community – poses a real risk of tensions within the community and disorder.”
The Green Party has also come out in favour of the ban, with deputy leader Mothin Ali saying the Prime Minister had been “irresponsible” to “question a safety decision of a local authority”.
He added: “Under normal circumstances, supporters from across the fan base should be allowed to attend and provision taken to ban violent elements, such as the ultras.
“But these are not normal circumstances: these games are taking place in the context of thousands of civilians being killed in Gaza, the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and the upholding of a system of apartheid.”
The left-wing politicians’ support for the ban puts them at odds with the majority of the UK’s political leaders, who between them signalled the decision was a capitulation to antisemitism.
Speaking on Monday morning, culture minister Ian Murray said the ban sends the “wrong message” that “you will be banned from going to public events if you’re of the wrong race, religion or creed”.
