[perryp]

Bigotry is inevitable in an ethnically-defined state.

Racism a problem in Israeli soccer

Chanting “Death to the Arabs,” hundreds of young Jewish soccer fans race up a dusty side street to catch a bus carrying fans of the Arab team that had just beat theirs in a tense game.

The supporters jeer even after the bus pulls away. Moments earlier, an Arab fan had been hit in the head with a rock, bloodying his forehead.

Welcome to professional soccer in Israel, where racism and violence have become part of the country’s most popular sport.

Before Monday’s match, the home team, Bnei Yehuda of Tel Aviv’s working-class Hatikva neighborhood, was awarded a plaque for being Israel’s most tolerant and sportsmanlike team by the New Israel Fund, which has been tracking soccer fan behavior in a new racism index.

“Today they received a prize, but then because they lose a game this happens,” said Nur Ghentos, manager of the victorious Arab team, Bnei Sakhnin, as he watched medics bandage the head of the fan hit by a rock. “It looks like when you are winning you can be tolerant, but when you lose this is the result. This is the story of soccer in Israel.”

Before this season, Bnei Yehuda fans had a reputation for being rowdy and racist.

The team had been leading Israel’s top league until Monday’s loss — and for some Jewish fans, losing to an Arab team is the ultimate insult.

Immediately after the game, fans for the most part were restrained, even applauding briefly for the rival team. New Israel Fund officials noted that the problems began, as they often do, outside the stadium.

Soccer hooliganism in Israel has not reached European levels, but it is very much part of the culture of the game here — something civil society organizations and team officials are trying to change.

Beginning last season, the New Israel Fund racism index has been giving supporters of each team a weekly grade. Volunteers are planted as monitors in the crowds and record the number of racist songs, slogans and incidents they observe.

The results, ranking the most and least tolerant teams, are published weekly in the media and have caused a stir among soccer fans.

Overall, racial incidents are down at soccer matches this season, but ongoing Israeli-Palestinian violence exacerbates soccer violence, said Yair Galily, a sports sociologist and head of mass media and sports studies at the Zinman College of Israel’s Wingate Institute.

Soccer “is a very interesting and authentic reflection of society. We have a violent society relative to other places in world, and we can see it in the soccer violence,” Galily said. “Because it comes out in the context of soccer it is legitimized, as if it’s OK to get these things out as a catharsis.”

The tolerance lacking in the stands can be found on the field, however, where Jews and Arabs often play on the same team.

“On the soccer field is one of the only jobs where you see Arabs and Jews working together,” said Eliezer Yaari, executive director of the New Israel Fund in Israel, an organization that promotes equality, democracy and social justice.

Lior Asulin, a Jewish player, scored the winning goal for the Arab team, Bnei Sakhnin. He was cheered and hoisted on his teammates’ shoulders as fans roared and whooped.

Racism in Israeli soccer stems mostly from Jewish fans who feel they can shout slogans such as “Death to the Arabs” and “Go to Palestine” without fear of repercussion, experts say.

The same cannot be said for their Arab counterparts. Jews playing on Arab teams say they feel at home on their teams.

The Arab fans “give us lots of respect; there is no racism. They treat us well and we enjoy every minute,” Asulin said, smiling as he was slapped on the back after the game by a steady stream of fans.

In the late 1970s, the first Arab players were included on Jewish teams of the top league.

This season, for the first time, two Arab teams, Bnei Sakhnin and Maccabi Ahi Nazareth, performed well enough to be included in the premier league.

In a sign of soccer’s potential to become a beacon for coexistence, fans of the Nazareth team cheered when Israel’s star player, Chaim Revivo, appeared on the field to play for the Jewish team of Ashdod. The Ashdod fans applauded the Nazareth fans in return.

Last year, a team from the Arab town of Kafr Kana was invited to play a match in Jordan but were told by the Jordanians that they would have to leave their Jewish players behind. The Kafr Kana management refused to go without the Jewish players.

Sponsors also may shy away from teams with a reputation for racism.

The cellular phone company Cellcom dropped its sponsorship of Beitar Jerusalem, which is considered to have the most racist fans in the country.

The fans are known to have shouted “Death to the Arabs” for the duration of entire games, and the team is the only one in the premier league that never has hired an Arab player.

Team officials denied any link between Cellcom’s decision to drop its sponsorship and fan behavior.

It was revealed that at Beitar Jerusalem games, song sheets have been passed out with racist lyrics put to the tune of a popular song. The song was directed at one of Israel’s top Arab players, Salim Toameh, who plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv.

“This is the Land of Israel, Toameh. This is the Jewish state. I hate you Salim Toameh, I hate all the Arabs,” the fans sang.

The song now is commonly heard at games across the country and is directed at Arab players, whether or not Toameh is playing.

According to the New Israel Fund racism index, Beitar Jerusalem fans ranked as the most racist.

Beitar Jerusalem spokesman Lior Mai took issue with the index, saying it provoked fans to want to win first place — even as first-place racists.

Racism on the soccer field is not limited to the Arab-Jewish arena. Black players — both Ethiopian Jews and foreign players from Africa — have been taunted with shouts of “Dirty black” and “Go back to the jungle.”

Baruch Dago, a Jewish Ethiopian player for Maccabi Tel Aviv, reportedly is considering leaving the team because he is so disheartened by racist slurs hurled at him by his own team’s fans.

Anti-black sentiment is especially rife in European soccer, and public awareness campaigns are trying to help fight it.

Anti-Semitic epithets sometimes are shouted at players of British and Dutch teams considered “Jewish teams” because they either are owned by Jews or traditionally have been supported by Jewish fans.

In the dilapidated streets of the Hatikva neighborhood, Bnei Yehuda is king.

One teenage supporter, catching his breath after running after the bus of Bnei Sakhnin fans, tried to downplay the racism among his fellow fans.

“In the Hatikva neighborhood, we have only one thing to be proud of: Bnei Yehuda. It’s not a personal thing between Jews and Arabs,” said Ben Ezra, 17.

But his friend, Lior Mizrani, also 17, said racial epithets are part of general tensions.

“We do say these things out of hatred,” he said. “It comes from all the terror attacks and shootings and it ends up here, on the soccer field.”

[itai195]

You really do seem to have quite an obsession with Jews and Israel. Has it been a long time since you've gone outside?

Bigotry is inevitable in every state -- there are plenty of ignorant people to go around. That there are people who hate Arabs in Israel isn't much of a shock to anyone. Here's another shocker hot off the presses: there are Arabs who hate Jews as well! I know, I know! Who would have guessed it?

[beijinger]

Originally posted by itai195:
You really do seem to have quite an obsession with Jews and Israel. Has it been a long time since you've gone outside?

Bigotry is inevitable in every state -- there are plenty of ignorant people to go around. That there are people who hate Arabs in Israel isn't much of a shock to anyone. Here's another shocker hot off the presses: there are Arabs who hate Jews as well! I know, I know! Who would have guessed it?

Just because it exists everywhere does not make it right. Your brief but supposedly sarcastic remark sounds like attempts to condone the bigoted actions.

Given the way the US government and press have supported Isreal right or wrong, provided it with WMD and hundreds of billions of dollars in military and other support, its not bad to hear a different description of the "wonderful friend" Isreal sometimes.

[Zimphire]

No he was just saying bigotry exists everywhere. He wasn't trying to justify it. He was pointing out only one side was being shown.

You know, I am sure the Arab side loves the Jews they were playing.

[Mithras]

Bigotry is inevitable in an ethnically defined state, such as (historically) all of the modern nation-states of Europe.

From the same news source:

Initiatives try to fight racism
in world of European soccer
ROME, Jan. 21 (JTA) � A celebrity soccer match may seem an odd way to commemorate the Holocaust.

But in a country where militant soccer fans are infamous for using racist and anti-Semitic slurs against their opponents, the Match for Memory is seen as an important and high-profile means of fighting hate.

�It is a great event that can seize the attention of the younger generations,� a spokesman said.

Like a number of other European countries, Italy marks Tuesday, Jan. 27, as a national Holocaust Remembrance Day. The commemoration, now in its fourth year, includes scores of ceremonial, educational and cultural events in towns and cities up and down the peninsula.

Foremost among them this year is the Match for Memory � a soccer contest between two teams of VIPs held in Rome�s Olympic Stadium. The game will be nationally broadcast live on prime-time television.

The match is sponsored by the Italian Jewish community with the backing of Rome�s mayor and other government and political authorities, and the competing teams feature politicians, sportsmen, artists, entertainers and journalists. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel will be the guest of honor, with senior government officials also in the stands.

In addition, organizers of the match said soccer players in professional league matches on Sunday had agreed to take the field wearing signs on their uniform shirts advertising the Memory Match with the slogan, �So as not to forget.�

Racism and anti-Semitism among soccer fans have long been a stubborn � and embarrassing � feature of soccer matches in a number of European countries.

�Unfortunately, at all levels of the game, from amateur to international, there are incidents of racism,� said a statement from the group known as Football Against Racism in Europe.

Black players often have been targets, with militants sometimes making �monkey noises� or throwing bananas onto the pitch when black players take the field.

Rival fans also often brand their opponents �Jews� who should be �sent to Auschwitz.�

About half of the cases of anti-Semitism reported in Holland in 2002, for example, were related to soccer games where fans unfurled anti-Semitic banners or shouted slogans such as �Hamas, Hamas, hang the Jews in the gas.�

Governments, nonprofit groups, and national and international soccer organizations, including Europe�s governing soccer body, the Union of European Football Associations, have attempted to crack down, with only limited success.

The anti-racism group recently urged assistant referees with the union to monitor the grandstands for abuse.

�Racism is a social problem that spills over into football. You are in an ideal position to help UEFA in the process of dealing with this problem,� Piara Powar of the anti-racism group told the assistants at a seminar. �You are close to the fans on many occasions, and you�ll sometimes hear remarks that are being made behind you. You can identify problems that perhaps a referee or match observer won�t be able to see or understand.�

In 2002, as part of an Action Week of Football Against Racism in Europe, a petition against racism in Polish soccer stadiums signed by 27,000 people was presented to the president of the Polish Football Association.

It noted anti-Semitic abuse, neo-fascist symbols and frequent hostility to black players. Signatures were collected at stadiums and schools all over Poland by a group called Polish Humanitarian Action and the independent anti-racist association Never Again.

In Italy, where Jewish leaders long pressed the authorities for action, the ministers of interior and sports ruled three years ago that soccer matches could be halted if fans displayed racist banners.

This month�s Match for Memory is not the first time that Italian Jews have sought to combat racism in the stadium itself.

In a 2000 initiative called �I am not a racist,� the Napoli Junior soccer team cooperated with the Naples Jewish community and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities to erect four big anti-racist photographic panels outside the San Paolo stadium.

One showed the famous photograph of the child in the Warsaw Ghetto with his hands raised, and the caption, �In the Nazi-Fascist extermination camps 1.5 million children were tortured, killed and burned. 1.5 million children equals 30 stadiums full of children.�

[perryp]

You know, I am sure the Arab side loves the Jews they were playing.

You seem to not have read the article. The Israeli Jewish side chant "Death to the Arabs"
And the Arab side? "Lior Asulin, a Jewish player, scored the winning goal for the Arab team, Bnei Sakhnin. He was cheered and hoisted on his teammates’ shoulders as fans roared and whooped."

Bigotry is inevitable in an ethnically defined state, such as (historically) all of the modern nation-states of Europe.

Historically, perhaps. But no modern European state has laws preventing inter-faith marriage. The closest analogy is apartheid South Africa.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by perryp:
You seem to not have read the article. The Israeli Jewish side chant "Death to the Arabs"
And the Arab side? "Lior Asulin, a Jewish player, scored the winning goal for the Arab team, Bnei Sakhnin. He was cheered and hoisted on his teammates’ shoulders as fans roared and whooped."

Had the Arab side lost..

I read the article.

I and other were pointing out, it goes on everywhere, and from both sides.

Your pointing out just one were the Jews said something bad isn't clever.

Actually one has to wonder about your whole obsession with Jews.

[The Ayatollah]

Originally posted by beijinger:
Given the way the US government and press have supported Isreal right or wrong, provided it with WMD and hundreds of billions of dollars in military and other support, its not bad to hear a different description of the "wonderful friend" Isreal sometimes.

WRONG! The cooperation between the French and Israelis going back to the 1950s and 1960s is how Israel made its first nuclear weapons. It never got any help from The Great Satan.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by The Ayatollah:
WRONG! The cooperation between the French and Israelis going back to the 1950s and 1960s is how Israel made its first nuclear weapons. It never got any help from The Great Satan.

This is actually true, and one of the things often forgotten. The US had a messed-up history in that region and others, but this is one thing it can't be blamed for.

[vmarks]

Originally posted by Millennium:
This is actually true, and one of the things often forgotten. The US had a messed-up history in that region and others, but this is one thing it can't be blamed for.

The US was late to the party- while there were minor relations dating back to the 'teens when Aharon Aaronsohn discovered a grain of wheat unique to Israel and brought it to the US for study,

(history for those who don't know it:
The discovery of wild wheat by Aaron Aaronsohn in 1906 in Rosh Pinah caused a sensation in the botanical world. Aaronsohn thought that he had found the "mother" of all kinds of wheat, but triticum dicocoides, which he discovered growing wild, is probably the original strain that yielded emmer wheat. Emmer wheat, or triticum dicoccum, has been planted in Israel since ancient times and specimens have been found in excavations in Eretz Yisrael and in Egyptian tombs.

This discovery and his articles in European journals gained him scientific acknowledgment and fame. In 1909, he went to the USA at the invitation of the American Ministry of Agriculture. With the support of American Jews, Aaronsohn founded an agricultural research station in Atlit, where he built a rich library, collected geological and botanical samples and inspected crops. He employed Arab workers and promoted their employment on Jewish farms. This led to a serious dispute with the Yishuv, whose Jewish laborers and teachers believed that they should cease to be dependent on Arab workers and guards.)


-- and when Truman didn't stand in the way of the UN resolution allowing Israel to form, but truly the relationship we know today began in June of 1967.

[itai195]

Originally posted by beijinger:
Just because it exists everywhere does not make it right. Your brief but supposedly sarcastic remark sounds like attempts to condone the bigoted actions.

Given the way the US government and press have supported Isreal right or wrong, provided it with WMD and hundreds of billions of dollars in military and other support, its not bad to hear a different description of the "wonderful friend" Isreal sometimes.

I'm not condoning it by any means, I'm merely pointing out that you'll have a hard time finding any country devoid of bigots.

Hey, there are neo-Nazi groups in Germany. Lets cut off all relations and support!

BTW, Given the way the US government supports Saudi Arabia, it's not bad to hear a different description of the "wonderful friend" Saudi Arabia sometimes:

ENTRY/EXIT REQUIREMENTS: Passports valid for at least six months and visas are required for entry. Visas are issued for business and work, to visit close relatives, and for transit and religious visits. Visas for tourism are issued only for approved tour groups following organized itineraries. Airport and seaport visas are not available. All visas require a sponsor, can take several months to process, and must be obtained prior to arrival. On occasion, American citizens have reported they were refused a Saudi visa because their passports reflected travel to Israel or indicated they were born in Israel. Women visitors and residents are required to be met by their sponsor upon arrival. Women traveling alone, who are not met by sponsors, have experienced delays before being allowed to enter the country or to continue on other flights.

http://travel.state.gov/saudi.html
Oh wait, that's an official document... Next time let me link to an article on a website nobody's heard of about an event nobody else has reported.

[ghost_flash]

Soccer is a violent sport to begin with.
All those angry soccer moms out there and all.



Stop the violence!

[macvillage.net]

Originally posted by ghost_flash:
Soccer is a violent sport to begin with.
All those angry soccer moms out there and all.



Stop the violence!

WTF. I like violence in sports. That's what makes them fun.

Without angry parents fighting, soccer riots, hockey dads killing eachother.

Where't the entertainment?



Face it. That's what makes sports fun.