How Israeli Football Culture Became a Weapon of Genocide

Football is supposed to be a game that unites people. In Israel, it has become something darker: a stage for racism, militarism and propaganda. From the stands of Beitar Jerusalem to the ruins of Gaza, 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.
A new report by the Hind Rajab Foundation sets out in stark detail how Israeli soldiers and ultras deploy football culture to humiliate Palestinians, glorify destruction and normalise genocide.

​Stadiums of hate
The story begins at home. Israeli football supporter culture has long been notorious for racism and violence.
Beitar Jerusalem stands out as the most extreme. 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 – and its ultras, La Familia, are infamous for their fascist slogans and attacks. They chant “Death to Arabs,” have attacked Palestinian workers, and in 2013 set fire to their own club offices in protest at the signing of two Muslim players. For La Familia, football is not just sport: it is an expression of a politics of racial purity and domination.
But 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. Inside the terraces, portraits of soldiers are unveiled alongside club banners, collapsing the line between state violence and sporting pride.
Even Hapoel Tel Aviv, often portrayed as a “left-wing” or “progressive” club because of its historic ties to the labour movement, has not escaped. In recent years its supporters have unfurled banners celebrating soldiers fighting in Gaza. Nationalism, the report argues, permeates the full spectrum of Israeli football.

Violence abroad
When Israeli clubs travel to Europe, their supporters often carry this culture with them.
In November 2024, during a Europa League match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israeli fans flooded into the Dutch capital. What followed was not the usual raucous away-day atmosphere, but a campaign of intimidation. 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 Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint with Dutch police, but authorities dismissed the case, citing “lost evidence.” When new footage resurfaced weeks later, the foundation refiled, exposing both the violence of the fans and the reluctance of European institutions to act.
Similar incidents have been recorded in other European cities. Beitar Jerusalem supporters have brought their racist chants to Paris and Brussels. Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have clashed with pro-Palestinian demonstrators, mocking the suffering in Gaza. In some cases, ultras coordinate with local Zionist organisations, turning football matches into political flashpoints where sport becomes a cover for intimidation.


Football in the ruins
Perhaps the most disturbing material in the report comes from Gaza itself. HRF 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.”
Graffiti and ultras slogans have been scrawled on the walls of Palestinian homes, turning ruins into canvases of humiliation. In some cases, soldiers dedicate demolitions to their clubs, or record videos where flattened neighbourhoods are presented as “victories.” On Instagram and Telegram, these posts circulate widely, receiving likes and encouragement from fans back home.
What might appear to outsiders as casual fan behaviour is, in fact, deliberate propaganda. Football symbols are used to claim conquered territory, mock displaced families, and turn atrocities into a consumable spectacle for supporters.


A systemic pattern
The Hind Rajab Foundation argues that this is not the work of a few rogue soldiers or hooligans. It is systemic.
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. Across arenas – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and inside Israeli stadiums – the same imagery appears. And across forms – flags, graffiti, tifos, racist caricatures, selfies, and social media posts – the purpose is the same: to merge sport with genocide.
Just as homes are seized and repurposed in Israel’s settler-colonial project, Palestinian ruins are expropriated as propaganda stages. Football is weaponised as a cultural extension of ethnic cleansing.


The call for sanctions
The implications are clear. These acts are not only degrading and humiliating; they amount to incitement and propaganda of genocide, which is prohibited under international law.
For advocacy, the message is simple: Israel cannot continue to participate in international sport while football is weaponised in this way.
The Game Over Israel campaign, which HRF supports, demands that Israel be suspended from FIFA, UEFA, FIBA and all international federations until the genocide ends and accountability is enforced. There is precedent: apartheid South Africa was banned from world sport for decades, and Russia was suspended from FIFA and UEFA within weeks of its invasion of Ukraine. Every match Israel plays in UEFA competitions today is, the foundation argues, a propaganda victory for a genocidal regime.


“Football and genocide cannot coexist”
Football should unite. In Israel, it has become a weapon of division, humiliation and propaganda. Soldiers wave ultras flags in the ruins of Gaza. Fans chant genocidal slogans in European squares. Stadiums glorify soldiers while homes are destroyed.
This is not coincidence. It is systemic.
The Hind Rajab Foundation says it will continue documenting, filing cases and campaigning until Israel is excluded from international sport. “Just as apartheid South Africa was banned, so too must Israel face isolation,” the report concludes.
Football and genocide cannot coexist.

PDF (coming soon)