The Beitar Jerusalem soccer team will be fined as punishment for "unsportsmanlike behavior," the Israel Football Association (IFA) decided Thursday. In addition, fans will be denied entry to two home games.
The team's fans chanted praises of Yigal Amir, murderer of late Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin during a moment of silence for Rabin held Sunday before Beitar Jerusalem's away game against Maccabi Haifa on the 12th anniversary of the assassination. The same day, the circumcision ceremony (brit mila) for Amir's newborn son was held in the Rimonim Prison where the assassin is incarcerated.
Widespread condemnation by the left of the Beitar fans was broadcast in the media. Journalist Arel Segal protested what he said was an opportunistic way for the left-wing to once again paint the right-wing as guilty of the murder. “They are speaking about an entire public as though they are murderers. The fans' response was idiotic. But it was an expression of protest. Some express their protest in academic discourses and others boo during a soccer game.”