Published: 8 July 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Beitar Jerusalem’s story is subtitled 'The Most Political Club in the World' but perhaps it should be 'The Most Racist'
Beitar Jerusalem has become one of the most notorious clubs in the world over the past decade. It was catapulted to infamy due to the shameless racism exhibited by a virulent group of its supporters, known as La Familia, who reside in the Teddy Stadium’s East Stand (Hamizrahi, appropriately enough, given that most of its occupants are Mizrahi Jews with roots in Arab countries) and are proud of the fact that Beitar has never fielded an Arab player.
As a soccer fan I really enjoyed On the Border: The Rise and Decline of the Most Political Club in the World. But I would have to quibble with the book’s title – in which “political” really serves as a euphemism for “racist.” The world is full of soccer teams that are the playthings of dictators and authoritarian regimes. What’s unique about Beitar is the way the racism is celebrated by La Familia, with its chant of “Here they come, the [most] racist team of the country,” as a badge of honor, something to sit alongside the menorah on the official club emblem.
That racism made international news in January 2013, when Beitar signed two Muslim players from Chechnya, leading to La Familia unfurling its infamous “Beitar Forever Pure” banner during a home game against Bnei Yehuda.
Yes, this is a book whose principal audience will be curious soccer fans. But it’s also an accessible primer on the history of Jerusalem and how the Abrahamic religions shaped it. Even more crucially, it examines the fault lines upon which the city is built: Jew vs. Arab; secular vs. Orthodox; Ashkenazi vs. Mizrahi; right vs. left – and, of course, the big one: Hapoel vs. Beitar.
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Inside Beitar Jerusalem, One of the World's Most Racist Soccer Clubs (Haaretz)
