United Kingdom – Fans of both Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United have received a warning from local police that anyone deciding to chant “Yid” during Sunday’s match between the clubs will face the possibility of arrest.
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THE AFP (http://bit.ly/GG3ba9) reports that the warning was issued by London’s Metropolitan Police Service due to the fact that fans of both clubs have histories of engaging in the practice.
For their part, Hotspur fans claim they chant “Yid” because that is the way they describe themselves, and that by chanting it they are reclaiming the term from those who have used it as an anti-Semitic slur against them in the past.
Use of the term by West Ham fans last November sparked a police investigation which also included charges that West Ham fans had invoked the name of Adolph Hitler and uttered noises simulating sounds affiliated with gas chambers in Nazi death camps.
That investigation resulted in official warnings being issued to several fans, along with a lifetime ban for one fan.
League officials have also issued requests that all fans refrain from chanting the term.
Who believes that the brits are a civilized lot?
it’s a compliment to be called a Yid. Why be upset? It doesn’t matter why they say it.
Hotspur has called itself the Yid Army for decades. It is a name they use with pride.