“Zionism out of sport”: more than a hundred people protest against Real Madrid – Maccabi Tel Aviv

Ione Belarrageneral secretary of Podemos, was the first to raise her voice last Monday, ensuring that the team is “complicit in the genocide” that the country presided over by Netanyahu exercises over Palestine, according to the political formation. However, it was the Spanish foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albaresthe one who declined the option of canceling the duel or preventing Maccabi from entering our borders. “Sports must be left aside,” said the socialist.

This is not the first time that those from Tel Aviv have encountered a hostile environment during their travels. Without going any further, on January 7, the Basque platform ‘Palestinarekin Elkartasuna’ He called for the suspension of Baskonia-Maccabi because “Israel uses cultural and sporting events to cleanse its image in the world and to normalize the existence of a colonial state that commits crimes against the Palestinian people.” The Euroleague itself and local authorities denied the request, although the group did display banners that read “Freedom for Palestine” or “Maccabi, out of Europe!”

Certain political and social sectors also blame the Hebrew club for supporting their country’s war against Hamas. During the last campaign, when the Arab terrorist group carried out several attacks and kidnappings in October 2023, the Maccabean players jumped onto the fields of half of Europe wearing t-shirts with the slogan “Bring them home now”, in reference to the hostages that the group had taken during his actions. They could not do it on their own court, since due to the insecurity that has existed in Israel since then, the club plays at home in the Euroleague in the Pionir hall in Belgradeformer home of Partizan.

The Maccabi of Tel Aviv, like so many other groups in the Hebrew country, is another element of Jewish culture and world. In 1921, during a congress in the Czech city of Karlovy Varyseveral leaders of said community set out to promote physical activity and thus formed the Maccabi World Union, an organization from which the majority of clubs in Israel would later be born, both in football and basketball, the two most practiced disciplines in the country. The club of Tel Aviv basketball team, in a short time, became one of the most successful in all of Europe.

They decided to name it after the Maccabees, a Jewish revolutionary group, which acted during the Roman occupation of Israeli territory during the year 167 BC, and its symbol was the Star of David, which can still be seen on the shield of the Hebrew team. As usually happens, with the passage of time, the clubs became associated with different political ideologies and it was Maccabi that was closest to the conservative party, currently chaired by Benjamin Netanyahu, and to Zionism, a nationalist movement, while the Hapoel Tel Aviv It is associated more to the left.

Now that the team’s formation is known, it’s time to talk about its ultra fans. As in practically all clubs in the West (Israel is a Middle Eastern country but has always participated in European competitions), in the 1970s and 1980s, these groups became radicalized and used political ideologies to justify violent confrontations with radicals from other countries. sets. In fact, the movements of the Maccabi did not generate as much fear as those of the Partizan from Belgrade (Serbia), the Panathinaikos (Greece) or the Fenerbahce (Türkiye).

His most controversial continental visit was not even carried out by his fans. In a duel against Madrid in 1983, a white fan threw a coin that hit the American center Earl Williamsnicknamed ‘The Ogre’. He went to the local stands to try to hunt down his attacker, but his partner, also an American Aulcie Perryreduced him to avoid a battle that, almost certainly, would have become pitched in the Real Madrid Sports City Pavilion

Conflicts with the Maccabi Tel Aviv ultras, beyond the usual brawls, have occurred in modern times, and this is largely due to the fact that fans associated with the left usually support the Palestinian cause and see the team as an emblem of Israeli military actions outside its borders. Without going any further, last November, dozens of radicals from the soccer team were beaten by their namesakes from the Ajax in Amsterdam. The former reportedly started the conflict by singing anti-Arab songs, but the Netherlands itself declared that the local response was “anti-Semitic” in nature.