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Sports

Israel’s Arab-Free Soccer Team

Even in a raucous sports culture, Betar Jerusalem fans stand out for their racist views and hooliganism

By Todd Warnick|May 14, 2012 7:00 AM|14comments
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Beitar Jerusalem players celebrate a victory over Maccabi Herzliya at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. (Getty Images)

But while Betar’s management, led by its legendary goalkeeper Itzik Kornfein, has made progress in the fight against racism among its notorious fans it still has not made the move: “We just haven’t found a player who is the right fit for our team,” Asaf Shaked, the team spokesman, told me. Some claim that Kornfein and others are still afraid of the reaction that the signing of an Arab player might engender among their fanatic followers.

It’s not just soccer, basketball—considered by some to be the sport of the upper classes in Israel (as opposed to soccer, whose players and league officials are from predominantly Sephardic and poorer backgrounds)—is not totally immune. Following a recent playoff game between rivals Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Holon, fights broke out among fans; a handful were banned from attending games for more than a year. Verbal violence is also standard at sports events in Israel. At basketball games of perennial Israeli champion and top European team Maccabi Tel Aviv, rival fans regularly call on Maccabi’s long-time chairman, Shimon Mizrachi, via an organized chant, “to commit suicide,” presumably because the team has dominated Israeli basketball for so long, winning the Israeli championship 38 times in the past 41 seasons.

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Racism against Arabs still rears its ugly head at Betar Jerusalem games led by its fanatic “La Familia” rooting section. And yet, some experts say they’ve actually detected a decrease over the years in abhorrent behavior at Israeli soccer games. A recent report from “Let’s Kick Racism Out of Israeli Soccer,” a program sponsored by the New Israel Fund that sends observers to stadiums around the country, has cited the significant decrease in racist behavior at games over the past several years—including at Betar’s Teddy Stadium, where management has made a concerted effort (at times to the consternation of La Familia) to eliminate offensive chants with off-field activities, pre-game ceremonies, and banners posted around the stadium.

Indeed, relatively speaking, perhaps Israel isn’t doing all that badly. Both Weiss and Last are of the opinion that real violence in Israeli soccer—despite the recent rash of incidents—is quite minor in contrast to many other countries. “It’s really small-scale,” said Weiss, who remembers when 96 soccer fans were trampled to death in the Hillsborough Incident in Sheffield, England, in 1989, not to mention the 79 people killed in soccer riots in Egypt this past February.

Nonetheless, while the Israel Football Association, Israeli soccer teams, and nonprofit organizations continue to try to make the sport free of racism and violence they still come up against unsavory incidents, problematic management, and organizations that are linked to Israeli party politics. Other countries may suffer from similar problems—the difference is that for Israel, the stakes are a lot higher.

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Todd Warnick is a consultant and freelance writer living in Jerusalem. He also refereed basketball for more than 30 years, including 25 years in professional leagues in Israel and Europe.
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  • emunadate

    If players can’t play together then they should have separate leagues and not compete with each other.  Israel has a wall that separates her from the the territorial arabs. Maybe sports teams should be separate as well…
    http://emunadate.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post.html

  • yevka

    Racist Israelis? Is this really a surprise in an apartheid state such as Israel?

  • http://www.facebook.com/scott.m.sperling Scott M. Sperling

    As there is not a shred of evidence presented in this carefully researched and well-written article that indicates that the Arab or African or Ethiopian players and their communities contribute anything to this problem other than simply existing, the analogy to the ‘separation wall’ is a poor one. Mr. Warnick does an excellent job of describing how racism has been diminished in other areas of Israeli sport and society. It is incumbent on Israelis to continue to address this serious social issue. Pretending that this situation is somehow equivalent to the genuine security concerns that led to the separation wall does nothing to address the issue at hand. Emunadate’s posting reminds me of the old adage that when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. 

  • AriShavit

    no

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/IFP6GQQMY3KE24RTHTWI3O6UCI Victor

    What a surprise!  Israeli Jewish soccer fans appear to exhibit a strong anti-arab bias. Maybe 60+ years of arab terror attacks targeting Jewish men, women and children civilians, decades of stoning incidents injuring, sometimes killing, Jews and general arab racist incitement against the Jewish nation and its Jewish citizens might just have something to do with that anti-arab feeling. Warnick is an obvious  Liberal-Leftist who thinks the arabs are the victims in this drama. There are those who are victims through no fault of their own and then there are those who are self-made victims. Any fair-minded person educated on the Israel-arab conflict knows the arabs are entirely self-created ‘victims.’

  • udiS

    Nonsense,  Beitar Jerusalem is the most Arab team in Israel! 

  • http://www.facebook.com/todd.warnick Todd Warnick

    Friends, Thank you for the comments thus far. @facebook-586300767:disqus As always, for your cogent remarks and your reply to @emunadate. @yahoo-IFP6GQQMY3KE24RTHTWI3O6UCI:disqus My family and friends were howling – howling! – at your characterization of my politics. But to the point: Despite the terror incidents that you note, I think the article also pointed out that Israeli Arab (as well as foreign African nationals) are an integral part of the league – save for Betar Jerusalem. Perhaps I should have emphasized more that even with regards to the post-game altercation between the Arab team from Lod and Hapoel Ramat Gan, there was no mention of Arab vs. Jew; it was, well, just another example of gratuitous soccer violence, which seems to be an integral part of this sport.  @yevka:disqus Given the extent to which Israeli Jews, Muslims, Druze, Christians, Circassians et al mix with each other on almost every level, every day (including on the soccer pitch), your comment is simply ignorant.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/IFP6GQQMY3KE24RTHTWI3O6UCI Victor

     Whatever your politics may or may not be your definition of the Betar situation fits in with the Left’s line on arabs. Fandom,in any sport, and most certainly in a small country like Israel with its fracture line between Jews and arabs, is always an expression of ethnic identity as it is in other nations with similar inter-ethnic conflicts such as Northern Ireland. If an anti-arab bias were to be reflected in any team’s fan base it is perfectly understandable and natural that it would be Betar. However much the various ethnicities in Israel interact in their daily rounds, when you put tens of thousands of  Jewish nationalist soccer fans in a stadium and are angered by their anti-arab behavior you are, at best, naive or , at worst, chronically delusional.

  • Jacob Arnon

     

    Many of the soccer players in this team are Arab Jews. This is true of the fans also. Half of Israel is composed of Arab Jews who had been ethnically cleansed from Arab lands. 

    Secondly, is it surprising that Arab Jews should hate Arab Muslims who had mistreated them?

    Finally, Israel is not an “apartheid State” as the antisemitic “yevka” claims.

    It is a State which had been attacked by Arabs and  their leftist friends for over 50 years. Given this fact Israeli openness and tolerance is heartwarming.

    Yevka like her Stalinist forebears would like to ethnically cleanse the children of Holocaust survivors and Jewish Arabs who found refuge in Israel. 

    Shame on you Yevka.

  • Jacob Arnon

    I’ll repeat what I wrote above:

     Many of the soccer players in this team are Arab Jews. This is true of the fans also. Half of Israel is composed of Arab Jews who had been ethnically cleansed from Arab lands. Secondly, is it surprising that Arab Jews should hate Arab Muslims who had mistreated them?Finally, Israel is not an “apartheid State” as the antisemitic “yevka” claims.It is a State which had been attacked by Arabs and  their leftist friends for over 50 years. Given this fact Israeli openness and tolerance is heartwarming.Yevka like her Stalinist forebears would like to ethnically cleanse the children of Holocaust survivors and Jewish Arabs who found refuge in Israel. Shame on you Yevka.

  • xmontrealer

    Yevka insists on using the bludgeoning term of “apartheid” to describe Israel. It is designed to halt any legitimate discussion about problems Israel faces, and to relegate it to a side show freak.

    Maybe Yevka can write an article on Jewish soccer stars in  Arab countries like Jordan and Saudi Arabia. As that won’t take very long, maybe then we can actually carry on an adult conversation.

  • yevka

    Victor, Victor, projecting will not win you a plea of innocence. 

  • yevka

     http://972mag.com/community-shaken-after-coordinated-attacks-on-african-refugees/43727/

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Brandwein/1052407656 David Brandwein

    Yalla Betar!

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Israel’s Arab-Free Soccer Team

Even in a raucous sports culture, Betar Jerusalem fans stand out for their racist views and hooliganism

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