Not Just a Soccer Game: Colonialism and Conflict among Palestinians in Israel

Introduction - A Soccer Game Turns Violent

xi Introduction A Soccer Game Turns Violent On April 11, 1981, a soccer game took place between teams from two neighboring Palestinian Arab towns in Galilee; in northern Israel it was Kafr Yassif, with a predominantly Christian (55 percent) population, and Julis, a predominantly Druze town.1 The match took place in Kafr Yassif , and it would have decided which team between the two would proceed to the upper soccer league in Israel. During the game, a fight broke out between the fans of both teams, and a person from Julis was stabbed (by his own knife). In spite of that violence, the game continued, and the team from Julis won. The moment the game was over, fighting resumed between the fans, and a man from Julis threw a hand grenade at the fans from Kafr Yassif, injuring a few of them. That night, the man from Julis who was stabbed during the fight died in the hospital. Another teenager from Kafr Yassif, who was injured by the hand grenade, also died in the hospital. Although violence in sports is common all over the world, none of my friends and I had expected to see these events unfold during the game.2 We were excited to watch the match, but this excitement turned into grave 1. The Arabs here are Israeli citizens, unlike those persons in the territories occupied after the 1967 war. I will discuss their history in detail in chapter 2, but for the moment it is worth noting that as Druze serve in the Israeli Army, they are armed, whereas Kafr Yassif’s inhabitants are from different religious backgrounds with a Christian majority and do not serve in the Israeli Army, so they are unarmed. 2. I attended the soccer game because Kafr Yassif is my hometown, and witnessing these events was a memorable experience for me. xii • Introduction disappointment after seeing people fighting, being beaten, and getting injured. Even the winning team’s fans from Julis were beaten up during and after the game. I felt that it must have been humiliating for Julis fans to be beaten, regardless of who started the fight. During and after that evening, I spent time with family members, friends, and people in the village discussing the consequences of the soccer-game fiasco. There was concern over what the people from Julis would do. We were aware of the arms they had because most of them, being Druze, served in the Israeli military. No one was sure whether they would attack the whole village to take revenge or just attack the people they suspected were involved in the killing of the Julis fan. We were also aware of the efforts that were under way for achieving sulha, a conflict-management method used in Arab tradition to prevent further violence and bring an end to conflicts between parties.3 For a couple of days after the game, we saw police vehicles around Kafr Yassif, which made us feel that the situation was serious. Some were saying that the police guaranteed that there would be no attacks from Julis, whereas others did not believe that claim. Instead, they argued that Druze from Julis would attack and take revenge on the village, and many felt uneasy because they were uncertain whether the Druze from Julis would attack only those persons suspected of the killing. Feeling unsure about the consequences, some families left the village and sought refuge in neighboring villages with friends and relatives. My father said that we were not going to leave, because he did not believe that random people would be attacked in Kafr Yassif. So my family stayed in the village and decided not to leave town. My father was both right and wrong at the same time. On Monday, April 14, three days after the game, Druze from Julis attacked Kafr Yassif. My relatives’ homes that were located on the main route of the village were 3. Sulha is a traditional Arab conflict management that is practiced in Galilee as well as in other parts of the Arab world. In short, it is initiated by leaders in the community called upon by the parties in conflict. Consequently, those leaders, called jaha, negotiate a settlement between the two sides to dispute and often manage to prevent violence from taking place, or manage to stop further escalation of violence (Jabbour 1996). Introduction • xiii attacked as the assailants proceeded...