BICOM

Supporters and political leaders spoke out against the recent behaviour of a small section of Beitar Jerusalem football fans, as the team took to the pitch yesterday against Bnei Sakhnin, a club closely associated with Israel’s Arab community.

Yesterday’s game, which passed without major incident, saw the debut appearance of one of two Muslim players from Chechnya recently signed by Beitar. It is the first time that the club, which has ideological right-wing roots, had signed a Muslim player despite the fact that Arab players feature regularly in most teams in the Israeli league. A small hardcore section of Beitar’s support, known as ‘La Familia’, had caused outrage by expressing opposition to the new players with racist chanting at a recent game. And on Friday Beitar’s training ground was the target of a firebomb attack.

Speaking at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, himself a Beitar supporter said, “we absolutely reject …violence, racism” of the recent incidents and further commented, “We have seen displays of extremism that we find unacceptable. These must be uprooted from the public sphere.”

Meanwhile, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told Army Radio ahead of yesterday’s game, “People who would burn an office are not fans, they are dangerous criminals… We need to remove them from Jerusalemite and Israeli society.” He added that “99 per cent” of Beitar fans disapprove of the recent extremist behaviour. An anti-racism protest took place outside the stadium before yesterday’s match under the slogan “Jerusalem Tolerant Forever.”

The match itself, which ended in a two all draw, saw the debut of Beitar’s Chechen defender, Gabriel Kadiev. According to AP, Kadiev received a standing ovation when he entered the game as a substitute and was largely cheered each time he received the ball.