Slurs Overshadow Israeli Soccer
Arab soccer player Abbas Suwan became the unlikely darling of the Jewish state two weeks ago when his tying goal against Ireland helped preserve the Israeli national team’s hopes of making it to the World Cup tournament next year.
But some ardent fans of Beitar Jerusalem were unswayed by that feel-good story. When Suwan showed up to play against Beitar on Monday with his Premier League team, he was bombarded with the sort of hostile anti-Arab chants and catcalls that have become a hallmark of Beitar Jerusalem fans.
Beitar Jerusalem has long had the biggest and baddest following in Israeli sports, with a reputation for intense devotion and a repertoire of chants -- including “Death to Arabs” and “terrorist, terrorist” -- that leave little to interpretation. (Among those heard at the most recent game was, “Baruch Goldstein, everyone loves you,” a reference to the Jewish extremist who killed 29 Palestinians in a shooting rampage at a Hebron mosque in 1994.)
But news reports about this week’s eruption of slurs toward Suwan and Arabs in general have stirred fresh consternation over the behavior of Israel’s soccer fans, particularly those of Beitar Jerusalem. The reports also have prompted demands to curb conduct that critics say goes far beyond acceptable sports-world taunting.
Yossi Sarid, a left-wing Israeli lawmaker, this week accused Beitar fans of “acting like beasts” and urged Israel’s soccer federation to shut down the team’s stadium for the last few games of this season. He said it should be allowed to reopen next year only on a trial basis.
The daily newspaper Haaretz said Thursday that Beitar fans were guilty of slurs few Israelis would tolerate if directed against Jews.
“Beitar Jerusalem’s rabble (and it is only some of the fans of the team) gives Israeli football, and through it, the state of Israel, a disgustingly racist character,” the newspaper said in an editorial. It called on the soccer league to fine the team heavily and said Beitar’s managers should plant guards and cameras in the stands to catch instigators.
But Beitar supporters say they are unfairly singled out for conduct that can be found among the fans of all Israeli teams, including those made up mostly of Arab players, such as Suwan’s team, Bnei Sakhnin. During the recent game, Bnei Sakhnin fans let loose with chants of their own -- by some accounts the name of their town, Sakhnin, by others Allahu Akbar, or “God is great” -- during the playing of the Israeli national anthem.
Health Minister Danny Naveh, of the right-leaning Likud Party, accused Sarid of political grandstanding at Beitar’s expense, saying critics ignored provocation by Arab fans, such as wearing shirts emblazoned with emblems of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Beitar Jerusalem’s former play-by-play radio announcer, Elihu Ben-Onn, blamed a small segment of the crowd for the bulk of racist chants. He noted, however, that the trend appeared to have worsened since the outbreak of violence between Israel and the Palestinians in late 2000.
“They bring the conflict into the game with them. The emotions are very high. They take their hatred against the terrorists and bring it in against those who aren’t Israeli Jews,” Ben-Onn said. “But it’s a minority.”
He said Beitar Jerusalem could defuse tensions by adding an Arab player. It is the only franchise in the 12-team league that has had none. A spokeswoman said the team would gladly sign an Arab player when the right one came along.
Avi Levi, a 33-year-old Beitar fan from Jerusalem, dismissed charges of racism, though he readily acknowledged joining in anti-Arab chants in the stands. Levi said it was part of the game.
Levi, who attends nearly every Beitar game and sits among the most hard-core fans, said the chants did not reflect his feelings toward Arabs. He said he has Arab friends and gets along with Arabs he supervises at a cleaning company.
“It’s not personal,” Levi said. “You come to a game to let it all out.”
Levi said provocative shouts between Jews and Arabs were to be expected during the recent period of conflict, which cost more than a total of 4,000 lives. “We have a country with a lot of problems,” he said.
Fans and the team’s owners say Beitar’s estimated 300,000 partisans -- who, like the city they represent, are mostly working class -- get undue attention because they are the largest and loudest group of sports fans in the country. They are watched more closely during games against Bnei Sakhnin because the rivalry has grown especially bitter, in part because of the increasingly hostile chants on both sides.
Aharon Bracha, 21, of Jerusalem, complained that the Beitar fans’ reputation has encouraged heavy-handed treatment by authorities enforcing incitement laws. He said he was banned from games for six months and hauled before a judge after being accused of chanting racist slogans. He denied having taken part in the shouts.
“The judge wouldn’t even hear me out and said he didn’t care. ‘I know who Beitar fans are,’ he told me,” Bracha said, speaking outside a meeting called this week to clear the air between Beitar fans and police.
Karen Panigel, the team’s marketing director, said 90% of Beitar fans behaved well. “They’re the best fans in Israel,” she said.
But they are the worst when it comes to using racial epithets, said Itzik Shanan, who oversees a project for the New Israel Fund, which monitors and seeks to reduce racist conduct at Israeli soccer games.
Beitar’s fans have routinely topped the group’s weekly tally of racist behavior, though they have shown improvement since the tracking project began two years ago, he said. Shanan credited efforts by the owners.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Fans of a Tel Aviv team recently sent one of their own Arab players off the field near tears after hurling insults at him. Some Jewish fans have referred to opponents on mainly Jewish teams as “neo-Nazis.” Jewish and Arab fans alike have beaten up rival supporters.
“The problem is not just the Beitar Jerusalem team,” Shanan said. “It’s much larger.”
At the same time, he said, soccer could provide a model for equality between Israel’s Jews and its approximately 1.3 million Arab citizens, who make up a fifth of the population but lag in most measures of income, education and health.
“If treated right, [soccer] could represent the right relationship between Jews and Arabs in this country,” he said.
Indeed, Suwan’s thrilling late-game goal -- and a similar finale days later when another Arab player on the national team provided a tie against France -- buoyed many Israelis who saw the goals as blows for equality. But the Beitar game set hopes back.
Suwan has shrugged off the taunts from the stands, saying he prefers to focus on the game.
“What goes on there is not my concern,” he said Thursday in a radio interview. “It is there, but it is not my job to answer those people.”
