No Jews Allowed—Again
6 min read
From England to Indonesia, Jews are once more barred from public life. The bans spread quietly, but their implications are deafening.
On Thursday, November 6, 2025, Maccabi Tel Aviv faces Aston Villa in a UEFA Europa League clash in Birmingham, England. Yet the spotlight is less on the pitch than on politics: police, activists, and local officials—including Birmingham’s outspokenly anti-Israel MP, Ayoub Khan—warn that the very presence of Israelis could spark violence. Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group went further, urging that Israelis be barred from attending. The police backed the move, citing consultations with “community representatives” and deeming the attendance of Israeli fans a “high-risk” provocation.
Their supposed proof? Last year’s anti-Jewish pogrom in Amsterdam. During a November 7, 2024 game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Dutch team Ajax in Amsterdam, scores of Muslim men roamed the streets, beating up anyone who seemed to be Israeli or Jewish. Dozens of Israelis and Jews were injured and 62 men were arrested.
Instead of vowing to prevent another pogrom like this, English politicians are gaslighting Jews around the world by claiming the violence in Amsterdam was the fault of the Jews. MP Kahn claims Jewish fans started the melee because their “level of provocation was substantial.” After smearing Jews as so uniquely evil that their very presence provokes violence, Mr. Kahn and local police claim that similar violence in Birmingham is to be expected.
A host of other bans on Israelis and Jews - in Britain and around the world - are spreading with little opposition.
Politicians, including Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are calling for Birmingham’s ban on Israelis to be reversed, yet a host of other bans on Israelis and Jews - in Britain and around the world - are spreading with little opposition.
More and more places are becoming Zionist-free and Jew-free zones. Take the 2025 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, which are currently underway in Indonesia. Israeli gymnasts - typically among the best in the world in this sport - are banned from the competition. Indonesia refused to issue visas for Israel’s team, with barely a whisper of publicity or opposition. When the Israeli Gymnastics Federation appealed Indonesia’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport - the world’s final arbiter for sporting disputes - the Court ruled against Israel.
Nobody protested. The International Olympic Committee did express “great concern” about the ban, but did nothing about it. For Israeli gymnasts, competing at the highest level on the global stage is now simply an impossibility.
Jewish and Israeli children were turned away from public spaces in at least two incidents in recent months. In July, 2025, Spain’s Vueling Airlines forcibly removed a group of 44 French teenage campers and 8 adults who were flying home to Paris from a summer camp in Spain. (Vueling representatives accuse the teens and their counselors of being disruptive; the campers and their minders counter that they did nothing wrong and were removed after singing Jewish songs.) Following the incident, Spain’s Transportation Minister, Oscar Puente, called the French Jews “Israeli brats.”
In August, 2025, 150 Israeli children who were attending a Spanish summer camp arrived at Tyrovol, a popular outdoor adventure park in France’s Pyrenees region, close to the Spanish border, only to find that the manager immediately announced he was closing the entire park. Though the manager, Florian Sollac, claimed he was closing the park for an unplanned safety inspection, French police arrested him for “refusal to provide service or conduct business based on religious discrimination.”
It’s becoming more acceptable to ban Jews outright. Take the bookstore in Flensburg, Germany. In September 2025, its owner put a sign in its window reading: “JEWS are banned from here!!!! Nothing personal. Not even antisemitism. I just can’t stand you.”
When asked about his new policy, the owner proudly told journalists that his Jewish ban was a natural reaction to Israel’s supposed crimes in Gaza.
Examples of Jews being banned from restaurants and bars in 2025 are almost too numerous to count. In Naples an Israeli couple was kicked out of a restaurant after the owner heard them talking about Israel: “Zionists are not welcome here,” he declared. Far from being embarrassed, the restaurant owner proudly defended his actions as a stand for Palestinian rights.
Three British Jewish couples were called baby-killers expelled from a taverna in the Greek island of Naxos after the owner realized they were Jews. In Vigo, Spain, several Israelis were kicked out of a bar while the manager screamed “you kill people then you go on vacation - get out of here.” Israeli cellist Amit Peled and two friends were told to leave a restaurant in Vienna after a waiter overheard them speaking Hebrew together. The owner of a restaurant in Thailand posted a video of himself shouting “Free Palestine!” and ordering a group of Israeli customers to leave. In Oakland, California, a coffee shop refused to serve customers who looked visibly Jewish on at least two ocassions.
The House of Blues in Chicago cancelled a concert by the American Jewish singer Matisyahu last year over vaguely-defined “safety concerns.” It was thought that the presence of a proudly Jewish singer might offend people and spark violence - so Matisyahu was silenced instead. Venues in Santa Fe and Tucson also claimed the Jewish singer was too dangerous to host.
What ties these stories together is not just hostility toward Israelis, but the normalization of treating Jews as a “security risk” simply for existing in public life. The message from Birmingham to Jakarta, from Paris to Chicago, is chillingly consistent: Jewish presence itself is framed as a provocation, and Jewish participation in civic, cultural, or sporting life is now contingent on the goodwill of those who might be “offended.”
The world is testing whether Jews will quietly accept exclusion as the new normal.
The lesson is stark. Jews can no longer assume that institutions, courts, or governments will reliably defend their right to participate equally in public life. Appeals to fairness or precedent often fall flat when Jewish inclusion is on the line.
Jews must draw three key insights:
The world is testing whether Jews will quietly accept exclusion as the new normal. The answer must be clear: Jewish life is not a provocation, Jewish presence is not a crime, and Jews have an equal right to live, play, sing, compete, and celebrate—without apology and without permission.
I live in a suburb about an hour outside of NYC. Zohar Mamdani is running for mayor of NYC,and has made his hatred of Jews very well known. Tragically he is leading in the polls. Among other actions, he has aligned himself with BDS and did not say one word when our hostages were released last week. He will be a disaster for NYC and I hope his opponent wins this election!
Let's not forget about David Draiman's concert being canceled by the Mayor of Forest, Belgium. Just another example of this same unfortunate trend. David has been an amazing advocate for Israel these past two years!
Excellent and chilling article.