WMP’s Chief Constable was forced to resign on 16 January 2026. A retired Jewish Chief Superintendent has been appointed by WMP to oversee antisemitism training. WMP are now addressing reports of antisemitism immediately and are working closely with representatives of the Birmingham Jewish community to promote harmony across the city. Other UK police forces are asking WMP for advice on how to avoid making similar errors to those which led to the decision to ban the TA Maccabi fans.
Simone and Michael will explain how these and other results have been achieved, and what can and should be done to prevent appeasement of racial prejudice by other British institutions.
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Simone Schehtman is the founder of Teamworks, a hospitality and leisure group comprising indoor karting, laser tag and virtual simulator racing. She has grown the group to a multi-million pound turnover with over 110 employees at multiple sites across the UK. In 2020, working with Olympians and other elite athletes, Simone founded CoreSkill, delivering online sports education for disadvantaged young people at the height of the Covid epidemic. In 2022 she founded Birmingham for Ukraine to help Ukrainian refugees in Birmingham.
Simone chaired the Board of Governors of King David School, Birmingham, from 2019 to 2024, having previously served as Vice-Chair for 7 years and as a Governor for 13 years. She also performs annually on the violin for Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations and has raised many thousands of pounds running marathons for the Lullaby Trust.
Following the decision on 16 October 2025 to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Simone worked with Nick Timothy MP, Lord Austin, Lord Mann, Dame Karen Bradley MP and Joani Reid MP, as well as key journalists, to regain accountability over the WMP and the SAG, achieving substantial redress.
Michael Rowe has played a key role in the response to the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban, working with the small group from the Birmingham Jewish community to hold the West Midlands police to account, liaising with politicians and the media.
He has featured frequently in the media and has been heavily involved in resetting relations between the Jewish community and the new leadership of the Force.
Aside from this, he works in the Reputation Management & Defamation department at a London law firm. He was previously a Parliamentary Assistant to former MP Nicola Richards, who chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group against antisemitism.
Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister at 6 Pump Court Chambers and a frequent speaker on International Law. She has a law degree from Oxford University, qualified as a solicitor at Skadden, and subsequently gained an LLM from Tel Aviv University, focussing on public international law and the law of armed conflict. She clerked for Miriam Naor, President of Israel’s Supreme Court, and was a fellow at Columbia Law School’s National Security programme. Natasha is legal director of UKLFI Charitable Trust.
Natasha’s work explaining legal issues relating to Israel has been recognised by the American Jewish Committee’s award for moral courage and by the honour of lighting one of the torches on Har Herzl to mark Israel’s Independence Day.