Racist Israeli Soccer Fans Protest Muslim Players
Anti-Muslim: Fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team unfurl banner denouncing club?s signing of two Muslim players. Image by getty images
Fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team are protesting team owner Russian-Israeli tycoon Arkadi Gaydamak’s decision to hire two Muslim players.
Fans on the evening of Jan. 25 during a Premier League game against Bnei Yehuda at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem protested the move to bring two players from the Chechen Terek Gorzny team to Beitar Jerusalem in the coming days.
Three fans were arrested during the game for chanting anti-Muslim slogans. A sign reading “Beitar will be pure forever” was unfurled during the game.
“The two players from Chechnya are coming to Beitar. As far as I’m concerned, there is no difference between a Jewish player and a Muslim player,” Gaydamak told Ynet in an interview.
In March, 2012, hundreds of Beitar Jerusalem fans chanting anti-Arab slogans assaulted Arab workers at a Jerusalem mall following a game. Sixteen fans were arrested; six were banned from future games.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
