Local organisers of the main pro-Palestine protest outside Aston Villa’s football match against Maccabi Tel Aviv, held in the majority-Muslim Birmingham enclave of Aston, spent much of the evening on loudhailers imploring everybody to stay peaceful.
Yet a half-hour before the 8pm kickoff there was a moment of such volatility that it seemed, for just a few minutes, police might struggle to retain control.
The protest was on a grassy area behind the Trinity Road Stand looming overhead. There was music, speeches and chants of “from the river to the sea”. Black-clad local youths – some of them the sons and grandsons of Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants to Aston – also chanted “death death to the IDF” (Israel Defense Forces).
At 7.30pm a rush of match-bound Villa fans came up Trinity Road. A section stopped on the narrow roadway under the stand, turned to the Palestine protesters and chanted for Tommy Robinson, the anti-migrant hard-right activist.
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Some of the local Muslim youth surged forward to shout back. For a few minutes the two sides were barely separated by a thin line of police, who had heavy numbers nearby but seemed momentarily caught out by the rush.
In places, they were not separated at all. There were scuffles with some of the army of anti-migration right-wing YouTubers who always show up at these things to goad pro-Palestine crowds. Counter protesters joined in – a woman unfurled an Israeli flag before officers ushered her away.
Protest organisers tried to calm the most het up among their number. Police on horseback moved in and it took officers 15 minutes to restore order.
It felt like a close call. The scene was utterly cacophonic and, for police, a real challenge to keep a grip on things on dimly-lit Trinity Road.
And to think that UK prime minister Keir Starmer had wanted to add into this sulphurous mix the presence of Maccabi fans, barred from the game due to police worries about their hooligan element and how that would go down in Aston.
[ Maccabi Tel Aviv match morphs into latest front in Britain’s culture warsOpens in new window ]
There were already an unprecedented 700 officers policing this match. If, as the UK government had wanted, they also had to cope with protecting 2,000 Israeli fans, they would have needed to double that phalanx of officers.
As it was, the chanting crowds didn’t need an influx of Israeli visitors for the scene outside Villa Park to resemble a pit of disharmony. The domestic divides roiling modern Britain were laid bare for all to see.
Earlier, in the city centre, all was quiet. The only perturbing sight was New Street’s huge Christmas market, in full remorseless swing barely a week after Halloween.
Aston and the neighbouring ward of Witton near the stadium are 4km north. They are staunchly working class, arranged in redbrick Edwardian terraces interspersed with Asian food stores and other small, busy local businesses.
Local political leader and community activist Akhmed Yakoob, a solicitor and TikTok star who was narrowly defeated in last year’s West Midlands mayoral election, told The Irish Times that 40 per cent of the children in the local area live below the poverty line.
“This is a neglected community,” he said. Yakoob ran as an independent against Labour’s Shabana Mahmood, now the home secretary, in last July’s general election. Many in Westminster believe he will topple her next time out. He took a breath on Thursday as he surveyed the scene outside Villa Park after organisers calmed things.
“Emotions were running high. People are here protesting against a genocide. But we are the elders of this community,” said Yakoob (37), pointing to his fellow community activist, property developer Shakeel Afsar, who stood beside him.
“The youngsters look up to us. Tonight has gone perfectly according to our plan.”
Afsar, who also ran a strong campaign as an independent in last year’s election, was at pains to praise the police. “It’s very sad that a prime minister would stick his nose into police business, where it is not wanted,” said Afsar.
Yards from where we stood, police had pulled right-wing provocateurs out of the crowd, with one prominent anti-migrant YouTuber arrested for breach of the peace.
Across the road, another young English nationalist argued with stewards who prevented him from bringing the Union Jack he was wearing as a cape into the stadium.
It isn’t just the diverse immigrant communities of Aston who feel disenfranchised, I suggested. What would Afsar say to the English nationalists who had goaded the young men in the pro-Palestine crowd?
“Those guys have been sucked into a right-wing narrative pushed by Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage. Keir Starmer is pandering to the wrong people.”
As full-time approached, the bulk of the pro-Palestine crowd went home. But it was obvious police might need to stop some of the tetchy local youths who stayed on from confronting sections of the exiting fans.
A Muslim community organiser, an older man with a long beard and a loud hailer, pleaded with the youths to go home: “I am begging you. You are like my children, my sons. Please don’t give the counter protesters what they want.”
Some ignored him. “The days of chanting ‘free free Palestine’ are over,” said one. Another young man shouted “let’s defend the area”, as others briefly chanted the takbir – Allahu akbar.
“The right-wing media are recording you as you do this,” said another elder.
In the end, many youths stayed on but police kept them far away from the exiting crowd including those who had been chanting nationalist slogans at them earlier.
The night ended peacefully, if still a little tense.
Villa also beat Maccabi 2-0, not that too many seemed interested.
