JERUSALEM: The professional adviser of an Israeli football club known for its far-right fan base has resigned after saying he would never sign a Muslim player, a spokesman said on Thursday.
Eli Cohen, a veteran manager who was hired to the position at Beitar Jerusalem earlier this month, had said that past attempts to bring Muslim players to the club failed bitterly.
“I experienced firsthand what happened when Muslim players came five years ago, and therefore I’d never bring a Muslim player to Beitar,” he said in a Wednesday interview with the Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
Cohen had been Beitar’s manager three times in the past, including in 2013 when the club signed two Muslim players from Chechnya, angering some fans and forcing the team to hire bodyguards to protect them.
Stressing he had coached “many Arab and Muslim players” at other clubs he had managed over the years, Cohen said anyone who called him a racist was “stupid.”
Just hours after the remarks were published, Beitar chairman and Israeli footballing great Eli Ohana summoned Cohen to a meeting and the adviser apologized and resigned, a club spokesman said.
Beitar, known for its anti-Arab chants and often violent ultra-nationalist Jewish fans, has been struggling to change its racist image.
Last month, it was awarded an anti-racism prize by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin for its youth work and establishment of a forum to deal with incitement and racism.
The club, the only team in the Israeli league that has never had an Arab Muslim player, has a controversial history.
Its fans often sing anti-Palestinian chants at matches, including “Death to Arabs.”
They have also chanted support for Yigal Amir, a far-right Jewish nationalist who assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
The signing of Chechens Dzhabrail Kadaev and Zaur Sadaev prompted angry fans to set fire to the club’s offices in an act that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a lifelong Beitar fan, described as “shameful.”
Last year, 19 members of Beitar’s ultra-nationalist La Familia fan group were charged with attempted murder, including of rival supporters.
After three games, Beitar is leading the Israeli premier league, having finished third last season.
Football: Israel club official quits after anti-Muslim remark
Football: Israel club official quits after anti-Muslim remark
Israel army ‘temporarily suspends’ strike on south Lebanon
- The Israeli military issued a warning earlier on Saturday announcing an imminent strike and warning people in the Yanuh area of south Lebanon to evacuate immediately
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it would “temporarily” suspend a strike planned for Saturday that was intended to target what it described as Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
A November 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, which broke out after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
But Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to stop the group from rearming.
The Israeli military issued a warning earlier on Saturday announcing an imminent strike and warning people in the Yanuh area of south Lebanon to evacuate immediately.
But later Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said “the strike was temporarily suspended,” adding that the military “continues to monitor the target.”
The suspension came after the Lebanese army “requested access again to the specified site... and to address the breach of the agreement,” he said on X.
Adraee added that the military would “not allow” Hezbollah to “redeploy or rearm.”
The year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism includes the United Nations, the United States and France.
A Lebanese security source said the army had previously tried to search the building that the Israeli military wanted to target but could not because of objections from residents.
But the source told AFP that the Lebanese army was able to enter and search the building after returning a second time, because residents “felt threatened,” adding that they were evacuated over fears of a strike.
