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Beitar Jerusalem
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With its racist history, can a Jerusalem football team accept an Arab owner?
As Emirati sheikh buys shares in Beitar Jerusalem, the notorious club is confronting its racist ultra-fans in hopes of reviving its competitive edge.
By
Robert Swift
January 4, 2021
How Likud’s Ashkenazi elite became the patron saints of the Mizrahim
Benjamin Netanyahu and his Ashkenazi allies are exploiting Mizrahi resentment in order to delegitimize the current protests.
By
Orly Noy
August 3, 2020
Israel’s sports minister posts video with genocidal chants by fans
At the end of a Facebook video encouraging sportsmanlike conduct by fans from one of Israel’s most notoriously racist soccer clubs, those surrounding Miri Regev break out into chants of ‘burn your village,’ directed at the opposing team — from an Arab city in Israel. It’s not every day that a senior government minister, who a…
By
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
January 23, 2018
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Latest
The metamorphosis of a Jewish supremacist
David Mizrahi, once a vocal anti-Arab hatemonger, makes amends in a heartfelt Facebook post, and begins preaching tolerance and acceptance. In the current climate in Jerusalem, that is a brave and commendable thing to do. David Mizrahi was once a prominent member of La Familia, a notorious Jewish supremacist chapter of the Beitar Jerusalem fan club. Three…
By
Orly Noy
August 31, 2016
Israel’s most racist soccer club isn’t shouting ‘death to Arabs’
Compared to the overt, oft-condemned and penalized racism of Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s racism is more mainstream. That makes it more dangerous. An ugly brawl erupted on the soccer pitch on Tuesday at the end of a league match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Sakhnin, which is the most successful Palestinian club in…
By
Rami Younis
April 27, 2016
What Israelis don’t get about attempts to boot Israel from FIFA
It is incomprehensible that one of the premier clubs in Israel doesn’t allow Arab players — because they are Arab. By Asaf Marziano The head of Palestinian Football Federation, Jibril Rajoub, is attempting to have Israel expelled from FIFA, soccer’s international governing body. The topic has been making headlines in Israel and internationally in recent…
By
+972 Magazine
May 25, 2015
WATCH: What happens when a racist Jewish soccer fan meets an Arab player?
A new show on Channel 2, “The Newsroom,” aired a short segment this week called “To the extreme,” where it brings two people together from different ideological backgrounds. This first week brought a fan from Beitar Jerusalem and a player from Bnei Sakhnin, a club from the Arab town in the Galilee of the same…
By
Ami Kaufman
December 9, 2013
Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ‘burning the club down’
The recent success in dealing with racism on the soccer field could be an example of how to deal with the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Except when taking into consideration that an extreme act of violence was ‘needed’ first. My colleague Noam Sheizaf wrote recently about the racism of the Israeli soccer club Beitar Jerusalem. Tensions were running…
By
Ami Kaufman
February 14, 2013
The case of soccer racism and the success of international pressure
The issue of racism and Islamophobia among Beitar Jerusalem fans was considered an ‘unsolvable problem’ – until it was solved. One of the nastiest problem in Israeli soccer is about to get better, if not completely disappear: The issue of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism among fans, players and staff. This is a decades-long problem in some…
By
Noam Sheizaf
February 12, 2013
Soccer racism finally takes a hit in Jerusalem
Over the violent protests of its fascist fan club, Beitar Jerusalem makes good on its promise to bring two Muslim players onto team. A small victory over racism, but a victory nonetheless. Even if it’s a drop in the ocean, it’s a pretty big drop: the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, symbol of Israeli racism at…
By
Larry Derfner
February 11, 2013
On International Holocaust Day, reminders of local racism are abundant
Imagine this: You’re sitting in the bleachers at a Yankee game. You brought The New York Times with you, just in case things get slow. Or at least for the seventh-inning stretch. You read about how Steinbrenner is considering buying a new player from Haiti, or the Dominican Republic. Suddenly, you lift your head and…
By
Ami Kaufman
January 27, 2013
When an Israeli soccer game looks like a Klan rally
It’s hard to say which is worse – the behavior of racist fans, or the tacit approval they get from Israeli sports officials and media. I like to think that if you discount for the century of fighting with Arabs, Israel is still plenty racist, but no more than most societies. I remind myself that…
By
Larry Derfner
November 2, 2012
On violence, soccer and occupation – how is Israel different?
End the occupation and the militarism, which are conspicuous in the democratic world today but not in its history, and this could be a pretty cool place. I try not to go out of my way to write good things about Israel, but I also try not to go out of my way not to write…
By
Larry Derfner
April 22, 2012
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‘Armchair humanitarianism’: The problem with Gaza’s maritime aid corridor
‘We scream, starve, and die alone’: Life in the ruins of Shuja’iya
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‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
With no safety in Rafah, Palestinians are fleeing back to Gaza's decimated center
'Israel wanted a silent, perfect victim. We refused'
A ‘no-go zone’ for Jews? The making of a moral panic in London
‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
‘Armchair humanitarianism’: The problem with Gaza’s maritime aid corridor
‘We scream, starve, and die alone’: Life in the ruins of Shuja’iya
Rugs, cosmetics, motorbikes: Israeli soldiers are looting Gaza homes en masse
‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
'Israel wanted a silent, perfect victim. We refused'
Israeli settlers cross into Gaza, build 'symbolic' outpost
Laying the groundwork for Gaza’s permanent exodus
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