JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli football club notorious for the
anti-Arab chants of its fans plans to recruit two Muslim players,
fuelling protests in the stands that a senior cabinet minister condemned
as shocking and racist.
At a Premier League game on Saturday, Beitar Jerusalem supporters
held a banner reading “Beitar will always remain pure”. Other signs
hoisted by fans also protested against its owner’s intention to have two
Muslim Chechen players join.
The Beitar club is a bastion of Israel’s political right-wing and the
only leading football team in the country never to have signed an Arab
player because of fan pressure.
A Muslim player, Nigerian defender Ibrahim Nadalla, was on the team
briefly in 2005 but left after experiencing consistent hostility from
its supporters.
“I was shocked by the racism displayed in the Beitar Jerusalem stands
yesterday against having Muslim or Arab players on the team,” Deputy
Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Sunday.
“We cannot ignore these displays of racism which not long ago were
directed – and are still being directed – towards the Jewish people,” he
wrote on Twitter.
Police at the match arrested three supporters on suspicion of
incitement, and they were due to appear in court later on Sunday, police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The Israel Football Association (IFA) said it would take disciplinary
action against the club. In a ruling against the team a year ago, an
IFA court said that Beitar Jerusalem “had not made an honest effort to
combat fans’ racist chants”.
Beitar Jerusalem is owned by Russian-born billionaire Arkady
Gaydamak. He said he would not be deterred from bringing the two
Chechens, Zaur Sadayev and Dzhabrail Kadiyev, from Russian premier
league club Terek Grozny to Israel later in the week.
Gaydamak told Israeli Army Radio the “small group of so-called
supporters” of Beitar Jerusalem “do not represent the general opinion of
the Israeli public, and they should not be allowed to win”.
Arab citizens make up around 20 percent of Israel’s population of 7.8
million and no other Israeli club, many of whom have Arab players, has
ever effectively barred them. Arab players have long been included in
Israel’s national team.
Beitar Jerusalem is now in fourth place in the Premier League, a
position that could earn it a place in European club play next season.
Rifaat Turk, the first Arab to play for Israel’s national team during
an international career from 1976 to 1986, said Beitar Jerusalem’s fans
had shown “wanton racism”. He called on the IFA to take firm action
against the club
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