West Ham Urges Supporters to Drop Anti-Palestine Chant

West Ham have issued a sharp warning to their own supporters, urging them to drop a chant the club says carries an “anti-Palestine message” ahead of their first home game of the Championship season.

The east London side, relegated from the Premier League last term, released a lengthy statement on Thursday after footage and reports emerged from Sunday’s opener away at Burnley. A section of the travelling support was heard singing what the club called an “offensive and divisive chant”.

The timing is impossible to ignore. One of West Ham’s major summer arrivals is Israel winger Manor Solomon, signed from Tottenham Hotspur on a three-year deal. His move has already stirred debate among some fanbases across Europe, and West Ham now find themselves confronting the fallout inside their own stands.

In the statement, the club stressed it wants the London Stadium loud, hostile for opponents, and united behind the team — but not at the cost of turning the terraces into a battleground over geopolitics.

“We encourage our supporters to sing loud and proud about their football club and the players wearing the claret and blue shirt — but never in a way that creates division or causes offence among fellow fans,” the club said, framing the message as a reminder of “the responsibility we all hold to represent the club in the right way”.

The appeal lands just days before West Ham host Charlton Athletic on Saturday, their first home fixture back in the second tier. The club are clearly determined that the story of the day should be about the football, not about a chant that drags them into a row far beyond the touchline.