The Campaign Against Antisemitism says that the decision to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Villa Park has “angered the whole country” (Home Office offers extra resources in effort to undo Maccabi Tel Aviv fans ban, 17 October). Well, I am not angered by it, only mildly surprised that just one set of fans has been excluded. What I’m angry about is that the state of Israel, which has committed genocide and a scorched-earth policy in Gaza, and continues to flout international law and civilised norms in the West Bank, is allowed to participate in international competitions at all.
Those who persist in conflating anti-Israeli sentiment and antisemitism seem to me to be making the problem worse. If the interests of the Israeli state and that of all Jews are endlessly characterised as one and the same then, regrettably, Jewish people like the Maccabi fans, who individually may or may not support Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions, end up as targets of the opprobrium, and even hatred, that ought to by rights be directed at the Israeli government.
Isabella Stone
Sheffield
