For the first time in Israel's history, supreme court has penalized a soccer team for (highly) inappropriate behavior of their fans.
The Israeli soccer team "Beitar Jerusalem" (my home team) is one of the best soccer teams (if not the best) in Israel. However, they have always been well-known around the country for another thing as well: the violent attitude and the political attribution of their fans- who are almost entirely (radical) rightists. So it is not in anyway surprising for hardcore soccer fans to hear Beitar fans shouting out "death to the Arabs" during games or calling Arab-Israeli soccer players "terrorists".
But on the previous week, the supreme court of Israel has decided it had enough of the fans' inappropriate behavior.
On last week, it was the 12th memorial day for the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabbin (in 1995). Every year, ceremonies are held in schools and in several places around the country, in memory of Rabbin's "legacy": a legacy of putting an end to violence, teaching values like pluralism and understanding between the two nations (Israelis and Palestinians). Today, many Israelis are against holding the memorial day, whether out of practical reasons (they think Rabbin did not do any more than any other leader for Israel, and therefore does not deserve a memorial day) and others because of disrespect to the man himself, who they believe did more damage to Israel than use.
On the day of Memorial, a soccer game has been held. Beitar was playing against Maccabi Haifa. The game organizers decided to have a short memorial ceremony before the game, and the players wore shirts with the writing "end violence" on them. Obviously, the Beitar fans did not like that. As protest, hundreds of fans interrupted the ceremony with loud shouts and songs in condemn of Rabbin and in favor of his murderer, Yigal Amir.
Supreme court has declared the fans' actions as disgraceful and hurtful of Israel's democratic society, and penalized the team with playing two game without supporters.
The opinion of the team owner, Arkady Gaidamak, however, was different. He said that the behavior of the fans was only a protest against the ceremony, that was intended to harm their feeling and political views. "Political ceremonies have no place at soccer games"- he explained.
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What do you think? Was it fair holding the ceremony at the soccer, knowing that the fans aren't "very fond" of it? Or was the fans behavior totally inappropriate, and there is no excuse to such behavior?