The historic link between the West Midlands Police and the classic blood libel ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Sunday, January 11, 2026

The historic link between the West Midlands Police and the classic blood libel

In October 2025, West Midlands Police and the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) in Birmingham announced a ban on supporters of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv attending a UEFA Europa League match at Aston Villa’s Villa Park on November 6, citing public safety and risk of disorder as the basis for the exclusion. The police initially justified the ban by pointing to intelligence of potential violence and “significant hooliganism” involving Maccabi fans, as well as concerns that segments of the local community might attack visiting supporters. It was based on false evidence that was manufactured after the fact.

I wondered about historic patterns where Jews were banned from public spaces ostensibly for public safety reasons. One striking example appears in Las Siete Partidas, the Castilian legal code compiled in the mid-13th century, which later became foundational law across Spanish territories, including colonial jurisdictions such as Spanish Florida and Louisiana.

Las Siete Partidas demands that Jews stay out of public spaces on Good Friday, because the Jews are suspected of attacking Christian children on that day:

Because we have heard it said that in some places Jews celebrated, and still celebrate Good Friday, which commemorates the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by way of contempt: stealing children and fastening them to crosses, and making images of wax and crucifying them, when they cannot obtain children; we order that, hereafter, if in any part of our dominions anything like this is done, and can be proved, all persons who were present when the act was committed shall be seized, arrested and brought before the king; and after the king ascertains that they are guilty, he shall cause them to be put to death in a disgraceful manner, no matter how many there may be.

If the Jews are attacked, it is their own fault and they are not entitled to legal protection:

We also forbid any Jew to dare to leave his house or his quarter on Good Friday, but they must all remain shut up until Saturday morning; and if they violate this regulation, we decree that they shall not be entitled to reparation for any injury or dishonor inflicted upon them by Christians.

Violence against Jews is thus pre-emptively excused, on the grounds that Jewish visibility itself constitutes provocation and Jews are the aggressors.

The parallel to the West Midlands case is difficult to ignore. British police justified the exclusion of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in part by invoking false accounts of events in Amsterdam in November 2024, that antisemites reported as Jewish-initiated attacks. In reality, subsequent investigations showed that Jewish and Israeli fans were targeted in premeditated, coordinated attacks organized via messaging platforms, explicitly calling for assaults on Jews.

In both cases, false antisemitic narratives were not merely tolerated but operationalized. Authorities accepted fabricated accusations at face value, treated Jewish presence as inherently dangerous, and justified exclusion as a neutral act of public safety. Violence driven by antisemitism was transformed into proof of Jewish culpability.

Also in both cases, authorities acknowledged that Jews would likely be attacked - but rather than treating the attackers as the problem, they treated Jewish presence as the threat. In medieval Spain, one reason Jews were banned from public view was because Christians might assault them. In modern Britain, Jews were barred from a football match because locals might attack them. In both instances, antisemitism was normalized as an immutable background condition, and Jews were burdened with the consequences.

This is the continuity that matters. The reasoning behind Las Siete Partidas and the decision by West Midlands Police is not simply similar; it is structurally identical. In both cases, antisemitic rumor becomes state evidence, anticipated antisemitic violence becomes a reason to restrict Jews rather than restrain attackers, and Jewish exclusion is presented as administrative necessity rather than moral failure. The logic is medieval, even when the language is modern.