{"id":107286,"date":"2015-05-20T09:53:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T09:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.wordpress.com\/?p=107286"},"modified":"2017-10-31T13:14:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:14:16","slug":"palestinian-players-not-wanted-expel-apartheid-israel-from-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/2015\/05\/20\/palestinian-players-not-wanted-expel-apartheid-israel-from-fifa\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian players not wanted – Expel Apartheid Israel from FIFA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No Arab players need apply to Israeli football team, coach says<\/p>\n
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Submitted by Ali Abunimah<\/span> on Tue, 04\/14\/2015 – 14:56<\/div>\n
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Players for Beitar Jerusalem, seen in yellow and black jerseys at a recent match against Maccabi Haifa, won\u2019t have an Arab teammate any time soon, coach promises. (Henk Vogel\/Flickr<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The coach of Israel\u2019s Beitar Jerusalem<\/a> football team has said that he won\u2019t bring on an Arab player out of respect for his club\u2019s racist fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the right time. It would cause tensions and create much greater damage,\u201d Guy Levi told Israel\u2019s 102FM radio, according to Ynet<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Levi said that he didn\u2019t think there were any Palestinian citizens of Israel<\/a> who would play for his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if there were a player who fit in professionally, I would not bring him in,\u201d Levi said, \u201cbecause it would create unnecessary tensions.\u201d<\/p>\n

While racism is endemic in Israeli football, Beitar is particularly notorious for the violence and hatred of its fans<\/a> who have habitually rampaged in the streets chanting \u201cDeath to the Arabs\u201d and anti-Muslim slurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked if he didn\u2019t think bringing in an Arab player would help change the racist culture of the fans, Levi replied: \u201cLet the education minister change the culture and not ask us to change the culture of a people that is centuries old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levi said his job was to \u201ccoach the team, not to educate anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then praised the club\u2019s fans, which he called by their nickname \u201cLa Familia\u201d: \u201cI met La Familia recently, excellent people and fantastic fans. I respect the people who support my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six Israelis arrested for last summer\u2019s abduction and lynching of Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair<\/a> in eastern occupied Jerusalem were all reportedly members of \u201cLa Familia,\u201d<\/a> and would therefore have regularly been exposed to racist incitement.<\/p>\n

Appeasing racists<\/h2>\n

In 2013, Beitar managers angered fans<\/a> by bringing on two Muslim players from Chechnya.<\/p>\n

Club manager Eli Cohen tried to calm them at the time by saying that \u201cThere\u2019s a difference \u2026 between a European Muslim and an Arab Muslim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmed Tibi<\/a>, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a member of Israel\u2019s parliament, condemned Levi\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the kind of thing that encourages racism and hatred in Israeli society in general and in Israeli football in particular,\u201d Tibi said.<\/p>\n

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on Twitter<\/h2>\n
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Tibi noted that the international football federation FIFA<\/a> would take a keen interest as it already monitors racism in the Israeli league.<\/p>\n

International pressure<\/h2>\n

FIFA and its European counterpart UEFA<\/a> have long been under pressure<\/a> to sanction or suspend Israel over pervasive racism.<\/p>\n

But while other countries have suffered sanctions for racism, Israel has so far been given impunity.<\/p>\n

Despite the pervasive racism, there are some Arab players on predominantly Jewish teams and Jewish players on predominantly Arab teams<\/a> in the Israeli league.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Arab players need apply to Israeli football team, coach says Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Tue, 04\/14\/2015 – 14:56 Players for Beitar Jerusalem, seen in yellow and black jerseys at a recent match against Maccabi Haifa, won\u2019t have an Arab teammate any time soon, coach promises. (Henk Vogel\/Flickr) The coach of Israel\u2019s Beitar Jerusalem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-107286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-english"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.12.2","language":"ru","enabled_languages":["gb","es","fr","pt","ru","no","ar"],"languages":{"gb":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"fr":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"pt":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"no":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ar":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}