The Beitar Jerusalem soccer team's signing a new player for next season would have mostly gone unnoticed under normal circumstances. This time, however, the story made the headlines throughout the country and even abroad. What made it front-page news was the new player’s name — Ali Mohamed — which flew in the face of the team’s most racist fans.
Some of these die-hard fans are members of a group called La Familia, known not only for their fanatical adulation of the team but also for their intense racism and hatred of Arabs, something they publicly admit. On occasion, these fans show up at games wearing the shirts of the far-right Kach movement. In August 2018, the leaders of La Familia met with Beitar owner Moshe Hogeg and made it perfectly clear to him that they would do everything they can to block any attempt to recruit Muslim players. In the past, they have shown up at games carrying huge placards and banners with chilling slogans such as "Beitar, Forever Pure."
These fans' racism reached its peak in 2013, when then-owner of the club and businessman Arkady Gaydamak recruited two Chechen Muslims — Dzhabrail Kadiyev and Zaur Sadayev — despite La Familia's bitter opposition. Fans responded by cursing the players during training sessions and games, setting fire to the Beitar offices, and booing and walking out when Sadayev scored a goal for the team. In a matter of months, the two men broke down, quit the team and left Israel for good.
In November 2018, Hogeg said, “Not every Muslim wants to kill a Jew. Beitar will be as diverse as the Israeli national team.” This might have been foreshadowing to his recent move of adding Ali Mohamed to the roster on June 10. La Familia responded immediately, warning Hogeg not to hire Mohamed, who was a citizen of Niger and played for Maccabi Netanya last season. La Familia declared that no Mohamed would ever play in Teddy Stadium. But Hogeg refused to be intimidated. He responded by filing a complaint with the police and threatening a lawsuit against four fans for harming the team’s reputation.
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