Extremist soccer fans display Israeli society’s brutalisation

Critics have long argued that Israel’s 58-year-long occupation of Palestinian lands conquered in the 1967 Middle East war has brutalised Israeli society.

Israel’s 20-month-old assault on Gaza and the Israeli public’s attitudes towards Gazan Palestinians serve as Exhibit A of the degree of brutalisation.

So does last week’s pummelling of two Palestinian public bus drivers by militantly racist fans of soccer club Beitar Jerusalem, a far-right darling, after a Palestinian soccer player, Zaki Ahmed, secured the 2025 Israel State Cup title for his team, Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

A crowd watched as ultra-nationalist La Familia extremists kicked, beat, threw objects, and butted the drivers after the match outside Jerusalem’s Teddy Kollek Stadium. Some cheered the militants, others stood by idly.