Israeli soccer club fans say no to Muslim players

An Israeli soccer club notorious for the anti-Arab chants of its fans plans to recruit two Muslim players, fueling protests in the stands.

At a Premier League game on Saturday (January 26), 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 soccer 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.

“Imagine, just imagine what would have happened if (soccer) clubs in England and Germany had announced that a Jew cannot join their teams. We, the Jewish people, who should lead the fight against racism and fascism; we, who will bear the scars of these phenomena on our bodies for generations to come, cannot and must not stay silent in the face of these calls,” Israeli Knesset speaker and a senior ruling Likud member, Reuven Rivlin said on Sunday during an event marking international Holocaust Day in Tel Aviv.

Police at the match arrested three supporters on suspicion of incitement, and at least one of them appeared in a Jerusalem court 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.

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. 1976 to 1986, said Beitar Jerusalem's fans had shown “wanton racism”. He called on the IFA to take firm action against the club.