‘They teach you to harm people who are different from you’: Former Israeli racist speaks out

A former member La Familia exposes how the racist fans of Jerusalem Beitar football club use violence to support the government’s hard-Right agenda.

For David Mizrahi, who grew up amid despair and destitution near Teddy football stadium in Jerusalem, addressing a crowd of 140,000 anti-government demonstrators in Tel Aviv last Saturday night capped a long journey.

Once he was a member of La Familia, the notoriously violent and racist group of football fans of the Beitar Jerusalem team. But now he is a progressive voice against the hard-Right coalition and its efforts to concentrate greater powers in its own hands.

Sharing his reflections on the poverty and lack of belonging that made him gravitate to La Familia, Mizrahi seemed to be trying to inject a social justice component into the conspicuously middle-class protest movement. 

“How is it that in a country that is so rich, there are so many poor people and children forced to defer their dreams?” asked Mizrahi, who left La Familia eight years ago and has since spent much of his time addressing youth groups with an anti-racism message.

His crusade is something sorely needed as La Familia casts its dark shadow on the current upheaval over the government’s judicial overhaul plan. On March 27, the group called on its members to come out and protest on behalf of the government to counter a massive rally by opponents of the attempted weakening of the Supreme Court. “We won’t give up on the country,” La Familia said in a social media post.

A series of violent episodes ensued, including a near-lynching of an Arab taxi driver, the wounding of a Channel 13 journalist and violence against protesters in Tel Aviv. Anti-government protesters attribute all of these attacks to La Familia.