BBC4 - Storyville. Forever Pure - Football and Racism in Jerusalem.

bazjonster

Incredible viewing about Beitar Jerasulem FC, the most notorious and popular football team in Israel and the only Israeli Premier League team to have never signed or played an Arab/Muslim. Until.......................

Available on iPlayer for another 20 odd days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084xppx

RodneyCharltonTrotta

Watched it. Was an amazing documentary and tragic in the real lack of hope for resolution whilst those attitudes prevail.

The ownerve was a loon and used those poor young players as an experiment. Great programme

bazjonster

You're right about that owner Rodders. He makes Duchatelet look like Mary Poppins!!

SheffieldRed

Cheers for posting
Will watch

Club used to be owned by the father of the guy who owned Portsmouth

Lincsaddick

Looking forward to watching this .. what would we (or I) do without iPlayer and CatchUp ?

NomadicAddick

Cheers for posting, would've missed it. Brilliant doc.

Nadou

Now that's what I call effective protests!! But what a vile lot those fans are.

Hastingsaddick

NomadicAddick said:

Cheers for posting, would've missed it. Brilliant doc.

Same here well worth watching, had to feel sorry for the 'caretaker'.

hoof_it_up_to_benty

Just watched it - absolutely amazing. The level of hatred is shocking....

Huskaris

Thanks for posting will watch this tonight. Never seen a bad Storyville, regardless of the topic.

Huskaris

Wow. Those poor guys... Especially the 19 year old, you could tell they had no clue how bad it was going to be, in fact no one had a clue how bad it was going to be

NomadicAddick

I felt really sorry for the keeper who was also captain. Did not like the new young captain at the end. His views were as shocking as the fans.

RodneyCharltonTrotta

It's so easy sitting on the outside to see why the whole situation is so futile and will continue with those mindsets but must be immensely difficult to have the courage and character not to have that mindset living with what they live with on a daily basis. The Chairman (ex player not the Russian owner) the keeper came out as truly heroic in their gallant stances against mass opinion and the subsequent abuse and threats they endured.

From my ignorant viewpoint I always presumed that Israelis were pretty much all well educated and was intriguing to see and insight into the other side of things where the bigotry is more overt.

As perverse as it was the experiment the owner did with the signings it was true that he said he wanted to hold a mirror up to a society that is kidding itself. Looking at the Israeli players and the Arabs there from my completely ignorant viewpoint I wouldn't be able to tell one from another and I believe they share similar ethnicity (if that is the right way of phrasing it) making the utter hatred because of religious division even more ridiculous.

Tragic and doesn't give much hope whilst such collective attitudes still prevail. Great insight (albeit fleeting) into how the political leaders seek to appease them with rhetoric and policy that gets them on side. Even though it was a snapshot of a microcosm in that part of the world it is easy to see how the situation stays as it is with those mindsets and way of life.

Greenie

An eye opener for sure.
It just kinda reinforces my opinion that the world would be such a better place if there was no religion.

Lincsaddick

interesting programme .. that part of the world, especially the eastern Mediterranean, is an absolute hotbed of racial, religious and ethnic conflict .. was a good insight into Israeli politics and how important sport can be to many people's ethnic and social identity

Bigbadbozman

NomadicAddick said:

I felt really sorry for the keeper who was also captain. Did not like the new young captain at the end. His views were as shocking as the fans.

You'll like the new captains wiki page if you check it out
Ofir Kriaf

moutuakilla

Horrific viewing really, if very interesting, much like the Louis theroux documentary about ultra zionists. The Argentinian player hit the nail on the head for me.

Very interesting that politicians use the football club to help them win elections and seemingly that was the only reason Gaydamak took over.

Must have been awful for those Chechnyan players, hated before they walked through the door.

Bedsaddick

Fascinating programme but one expression that was quoted still haunts me and that is " The fans are destroying their own club with their reactions "

Raith_C_Chattonell

Jewish fans demanding that the bloodline of their team is kept 'pure', bizarre and tragic at the same time. A most depressing program, the human race at its very worse.