This is a story from the year of 2019, but as actual as it could be with what is happening with Israel and Palestine, as the war in Gaza continues.
We will take the walk down to this part of the World, as we do think of our faith and belief, war, God and Jesus as well as the Holy Ghost and all that, but this is about football.
The idea to write somehting about this topic came to life when getting the news about Yossi Benayoun and his retirement from football at the age of 38. His last club in a long career was Beitar Jerusalem. Benayoun had a unique and special career playing for a number of clubs in England such as Liverpool, Chelsea, West Ham, Arsenal and QPR. He was in English football for 9 years.
He also played a total of 102 caps for Israel. This stands as a record and he was the first Israeli to reach a the limit of 100 before he called it a day.
But the first Israeli player to really cought the brightest attention was Avi Cohen. He was the “first” foreign player to play for Liverpool. Cohen is an icon and it was well marked in the country when he died in a motorcycle accident. He didn’t really influence much at Anfield with only 18 games for The Reds, but his career continued at Maccabi Tel Aviv. He later returned to Britain, playing a short number of games for Rangers, with a return to Maccabi Tel Aviv for his last swansong. Cohen played 51 full internationals for his nation.
Next in line to be mentioned is Ronnie Rosenthal, he was also signed by Liverpool, scored a few memorable goals. He was a driving force and an explosive player later also playing for Spurs and WAtford. He played a number of years for Maccabi Haifa before his move to Europe, playing for Brugge and Standard Liege in Belgium and made his mark in Belgium, before being signed by Liverpool. Rosenthal played 60 internationals for Israel, scoring 11 goals.
Det neste navnet som dukker opp i hukommelsen er Ronnie Rosenthal, som også kom til Liverpool og dundret inn noen mål, var en en med kraft og eksplosivitet som senere også spilte med suksess hos Tottenham og Watford. Rosenthal spilte mange sesonger i Macabi Haifa før han kom til Europa og representerte Brugge og Standard Liege og ble en hit som Liverpool da signerte. Rosenthal spilte 60 landskamper og scoret 11 mål.
The son of Avi Cohen, Tamir was also a good footballer, playing at Bolton from 2008 to 2011, 49 games and 6 goals. He had a bit of nomad life back in Israel, representing Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Netanya, Maccabi Haifra and Hapoel Ra’nana. A total of 21 caps and 1 goal for Israel, as the midfielder had a career to be proud of.
Two other players that turned up in this picture of former players are Jacob Cohen and Moshe Gariani. They were both at Brighton & Hove Albio in the early 80’s, both internationals, but in some way overlooked as they seldom played as “Seagulls”. Cohen played 6 games in total, Gariani only on the pitch for one league game. Both were known players at home playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Netanya, Maccabi Yavne, Hapoel Be’er Sheva and Beitar Tel Aviv.
Avram Grant is of course name to recognize earlier being manager at Chelsea and West Ham, as well as being the coach of the Israel national team.
Israel is the only nation outside Europe that is part of UEFA and could probably been qualified for more major tournaments being part of another FIFA organisation, but have chosen this as their way of playing internationals.
The national team today have a mix of players from their own top tier and of course also having stars playing abroad. Players such as Nis Bitton, Taleb Tawatha, Alon Turgeman, Ofir Marciano, Tomer Hemed, Berem Kayal, Monor Solomon and Bibras Nathko are among those playing abroad.
The domestic league do have 14 teams. Maccabi Tel Aviv is the major club and the best. Another top club is Hapoel Be’er Sheva. Beitar Jerusalem is a club with major support and grand traditions. Beitar and the naitonal team play their home games at Teddy Stadium. A nice arena, opened in 1992 with a capacity of just above 31 000.
Teddy Stadium is a bit of an unusual name for a stadium, but has it’s own explenation, being named after Theodor “Teddy” Kollek, a very known man in Jerusalem, being the major for 28 years, coming and going over a number of periods from 1965 and onwards.
Beitar Jerusalem do have their challenges with one ultra extreme fanbase of the club, leaving and starting a new club called Agudat Sport Nordia Jerusalem. The tried to name their club Beitar Nordia Jerusalem, but was not given permition to do so as protests from the original club stopped the approach and still is the main group of fans and keeping it up.
“La Familia” is know as a group to the far right, and they support Beitar. They are about 10% to 20% of the fans at home games and they are well heard during the games. They must be said to be the “ultras” as they also loadly express their feelings making no secret of their political views. Beitar is a jewish club and is well associated with zionism.
Beitar is often described as the most racist club in the World. Their foundation and roots had a total different manifest and idea, but this has become an historical part of the club that play in yellow and black.
The Oslo Accords also had it’s say on the game of football in Israel, as this became a political issue and often used as a shell hide for fans shouting their views around on all the stadiums in Israel football.
Yigal Amir, a right wing extremist, strongly against The Oslo Accord, murdered the prime minister Yithzhak Rabin i Tel Aviv in 1995. 20 years later you can still hear the Beitar Jerusalem fans shouting Amir’s name durinng games vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Beitar was known all into the 21st century never to field an Arabic player and even today there are no culture for players with such a background. Two players from Checnya, who are not arabic, but still muslims, was signed in an attempt to make an integration. But it did not work out well, with both players leaving after just one season with the club.
It will be unfair to colour all Beitar fans with the same brush, but FIFA’s parole “No to Rasism” has not really been much worth here, with their Ultra’s doing what they are doing and not really been stopped much either from the club itself. Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert, the prime minister of Israel and previous major of Jerusalem, er both said to be Beitar Jerusalem fans.
We all know what type of role Norway played getting the Oslo Accords in place, maybe NFF are willing to take some type of role in the work of trying to get political views away from the Israel terraces as this country belongs to the same union as Norway, both nations being in UEFA.
Norway is not a very powerfull football nation, but back in 2013, in Israel, their U.21 team manged to win a bronze in the Euro’s competition, which is probably one of the brightest moments for this nation, but nothing heard back then about the situation regarding the Oslo Accords and those protests in around stadiums in this country.
A player that comes to mind is Anthony Annan. He joined from HJK Helsinki, joining up for a few games, playing just 4 games for Beitar before returning to Finland, playing there until 2022, when he looks to have retired.
To continue and leaving Beitar at the far right, you will find their rival Hapoel Tel Aviv at the total opposite place of the political line, being far out to the right. The distance between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is a one hour drive. This is a new element that does not have anything to do with jews and palastinians, but jews to the right and left of the political axe.
Israel is a country with a lot of different colours and settlements, there are great contrasts in the jewish population, both in geography and hierarchy. We who live our lives through traditional european television, might get the wrong impression as headlines often gives a tunnel view, and we do not get the broader picture.
Hapoel is the team of the workers, and there are many of these clubs in the top flight of Israel football. If you have played for “Hapoel” it is said that you will never be signed by “Beitar”, but it has happened. The name “Maccabi” which means Sport, have a tradition from liberal jews, and not really as political as the other, seeing arabic and jewish players represent their teams.
Today no team are directly connected to any type of political movement, but they do have their history, and in 2004 Bnei Sahhnin did win the cup, a club north in the country, they became a symbol of the palestinian population.
The Oslo Accords had nothing to do with football, but it was often and maybe still is used as a momentum for words thrown out during games from the terraces as it all has become symbolic.
With everything going on at the moment, not really easy to call this an attaction, but still a lot of history and special events taking place from a football perspective, strangely going on inside UEFA.
LATEST UPDATES
Leave a Reply