Zionist regime’s football culture ‘weaponized’ to normalize genocide

The 24-page report, titled How Israeli Football Culture Became a Weapon of Genocide, argues that “sport and politics have fused in ways that reveal the deep entanglement of football with the state’s project of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing.”

“Football is supposed to be a game that unites people,” the report begins. “In Israel, it has become something darker: a stage for racism, militarism and propaganda.”

The foundation says Zionist troops and ultras use football symbols to “humiliate Palestinians, glorify destruction and normalize genocide,” both inside Israel and abroad.

The report identifies Beitar Jerusalem as the most extreme example of racism in Israeli football, noting that it is “the only major Israeli club never to have signed an Arab player, despite Arabs making up around 20% of the country’s population.”

Its ultras group, La Familia, is described as “infamous for their fascist slogans and attacks.”

HRF documents chants of “Death to Arabs,” attacks on Palestinian workers, and a 2013 arson attack on the club’s offices in protest at the signing of two Muslim players.”

However, HRF says the problem extends far beyond Beitar.

“Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel’s most decorated club, has a vast mainstream following. Its ultras have repeatedly chanted anti-Arab slogans and filled their stadium with tifos glorifying soldiers.”

Even Hapoel Tel Aviv, long regarded as a progressive club, “has not escaped” militarisation, with fans unfurling banners “celebrating soldiers fighting in Gaza.”

Violence abroad

HRF also documents the export of this football culture to European cities. It cites the November 2024 Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, where “hundreds of Israeli fans flooded into the Dutch capital” and “Arab residents were harassed, Palestinian flags were ripped from homes and shops, and in the city’s squares, supporters chanted ‘No children left in Gaza.’”

The foundation says its complaint to Dutch police was dismissed for “lost evidence” until video footage resurfaced weeks later.

“Similar incidents have been recorded in other European cities,” the report adds, noting that “Beitar Jerusalem supporters have brought their racist chants to Paris and Brussels” and that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans “have clashed with pro-Palestinian demonstrators, mocking the suffering in Gaza.”

HRF says it has “collected dozens of images and videos showing soldiers posing with football flags and scarves in front of demolished homes, schools and mosques.”

“Beitar Jerusalem banners are draped in destroyed living rooms. A Hapoel Tel Aviv flag is waved from a balcony overlooking the ruins of Khan Yunis. A Maccabi Netanya soldier captions his photo from Gaza with the words: ‘Something about away days in Gaza. Netanya forever.’”

The report concludes that “what might appear to outsiders as casual fan behaviour is, in fact, deliberate propaganda,” designed to “claim conquered territory, mock displaced families, and turn atrocities into a consumable spectacle for supporters.”

A systemic pattern

“This is not the work of a few rogue soldiers or hooligans. It is systemic,” HRF stresses. “Across clubs – from Beitar Jerusalem’s fascist La Familia to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s mainstream ultras, Hapoel’s supposed ‘left-wing’ supporters, and even Netanya and Haifa – soldiers and fans alike use football identity to glorify violence.”

The report calls for Israel to be banned from international sport, saying: “Israel cannot continue to participate in international sport while football is weaponised in this way.”

HRF endorses the Game Over Israel campaign, which “demands that Israel be suspended from FIFA, UEFA, FIBA and all international federations until the genocide ends and accountability is enforced.”

“Just as apartheid South Africa was banned, so too must Israel face isolation,” the report concludes. “Football and genocide cannot coexist.”