(foto: uradna spletna stran kluba)
Beitar Jerusalem has become a club that embodies the "politics" of a fan group that has extreme views.
The most extremist fans of Beitar Jerusalem, one of the largest Israeli clubs, are very proud of the title of "the most racist club in the country", because they are the ones who label their football team that way. It is the extreme right-wing fan group La Familia, which has completely "privatized" the external image of the Jerusalem giant. Because of this, Beitar remains the only Israeli club for which no footballer of Arab origin has ever played.
It is of course no coincidence that Beitar has the most racist fan base in Israel. The club was founded in 1936 by Shmuel Kirschstein and David Horn, members of the Beitar (or Betar) organization, a movement based on the ideology of revisionist Zionism. Many members of the club during this period belonged to the paramilitary organizations Irgun and Lehi, which were responsible for terrorist attacks and massacres of Palestinian civilians during the British Palestine period.
After the establishment of the Israeli state, the club first played in the regional Jerusalem League and later in the second league, and in 1954 they made it to the first league for the first time. They danced for only one season, then returned to the highest level in 1968. They won the first of six championship titles in 1987, and the club had its golden years in the 1990s, when it was national champion three times and established itself as one of the largest Israeli clubs with fans throughout the country.
The La Familia fan group was founded in 2005 and gradually became the face of the club. Even the "eternal" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many other prominent politicians from his Likud party declared themselves Beitar fans and liked to appear in the honorary stands during the times of greatest success. Netanyahu has also used far-right Beitar and Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in the past to attack protesters who were protesting his attempts to evade prosecution for corruption.
In 2009, Beitar captain Aviram Bruchian said in an interview that he would have no problem with an Arab player playing for the team. La Familia immediately summoned him to a meeting, and the next day he issued a statement: "I am sorry for the pain I caused the fans and I understand that I hurt them. It is important that they understand that I am with them no matter what. I am not the one who decides these things, but if the fans do not want an Arab player, then there will be no Arab player in Beitar."
Beitar's ultras do not only hate Arabs, but all Muslims. Nevertheless, in the past, several football players of Muslim faith have worn the Beitar yellow jersey. One of them was the Albanian Viktor Pacho, a former Maribor player who played for Beitar in two seasons (1999/2000 and 2001/2002).
By far the most controversial in this regard were the Chechen footballers Dzhabrail Kadiyev and Zaur Sadayev, who signed for Beitar in 2013. Members of La Familia immediately condemned this move by the club's management and hung a banner at the next match: "Beitar will be clean forever". Then two members of La Familia set fire to the club's premises, and when Sadayev scored a goal in a match against Maccabi Netanya, the fans left their eastern stands in protest. Beitar CEO Itzik Kornfein responded: "500 fans have the entire club hostage." Even Netanyahu condemned the arson of the club's premises. Nevertheless, the Chechens soon left Beitar.
The fact is that not all Beitar fans are hysterical racists and chauvinists. Many of them would just like to watch football in peace and cheer for their club, but in such conditions, it is very difficult to do so. When La Familia sings songs about killing Arabs, for example: "Whether it is a boy, a girl or an old man, we will bury every Arab deep underground," it is difficult to pretend that this is not happening.
Reuven Rivlin, former president of Israel and former president of Beitar, said: "I remember sitting in the stadium and telling Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert that what is happening in the east stand is not good and that by being silent we will give them legitimacy. You are the leaders of the community, the government, you name it. But they preferred to ignore it so as not to anger their fans."
Racism has eaten away at a club that should be among the best in Israel, but instead has been waiting for another championship since 2008, and in the last few years has not even come close to the top of the table. Last season, they were only eleventh, just three points from the relegation zone. They are also not doing too well in European cups. This year, they were eliminated from the conference league qualifiers, where they qualified as cup winners, at the first hurdle, when they were easily eliminated by Greek PAOK. Before that, they last played in the Europa League qualifiers during the corona period in 2020, when they were eliminated in the first round by Albanian Teuta.
Israeli journalist Shaul Adar, who wrote a book about the club in English, commented: "The decline of Beitar is also the decline of Jerusalem. Holy, hated, wounded and desperately poor. Because of the large Orthodox and Palestinian population, Beitar is a team with few local fans. They lost a large part of their fan base to a chauvinism that many fans could no longer tolerate. They attracted more and more extremists, and fans who wanted to enjoy football without all this hatred found themselves in a position of being ostracized. Nowadays, you have to be part of La Familia or jump through endless cognitive hoops to be a Beitar fan."
Adar also beautifully described the simple fact that football is always a reflection of society and that a club that represents Jerusalem could not be any different: "Beitar is a club from one of the most unstable places in the world. The air is permeated with religion and such a city cannot have a normal team."