Whatever happens on the pitch, the Maccabi Tel Aviv match will be a microcosm of some of the divisions plaguing Britain. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv’s decision this week to decline its ticket allocation for a match next month in Birmingham eases pressure on West Midlands Police, which had defied the UK government by supporting a ban on Maccabi fans.
But the problem hasn’t disappeared completely. The match against Birmingham club Aston Villa on November 6th has morphed into yet another front in Britain’s culture wars.
It now seems unlikely that large numbers of Maccabi fans will travel from Tel Aviv. But the fixture may still be a flashpoint for anti-Israel protests and counter-protests by supporters of Israel and of Britain’s Jewish community, as well as by right-wing activists.
Part of the context lies in what happened in the Netherlands last year.
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