An Israeli Soccer Match Requires Major Police Preparation

While sporting events at times bring out extreme responses from fans, the following report highlights how worrisome the situation is when the Betar Jerusalem soccer team played against the Israeli Arab team from Sakhnin, showing the amount of police preparedness required, not to mention the direct intervention by police towards maintaining order. Soccer in Israel is the holy grail, and nothing would disqualify the sport despite the growing violence associated with matches.

Police on Sunday afternoon announced preparations for the match later in the day have been completed. The event was hosted in Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium. Police operated openly as well as undercover, and this is after the area was checked and combed by police to make sure there are no explosives or anything else that might prove troublesome during the match.

Before the game, police arrested a 41-year-old resident of Beit Shemesh who threw a smoke grenade during the training session of Betar Jerusalem team on a field in Beit Vegan during the game and detained a minor for causing damage and another suspect was arrested for interfering with police. A 19-year-old Nahariya resident was arrested when he attacked a policeman and a fan of the opposing group.

Two vehicles parked in violation of the law and in a manner that constitutes danger and disturbance to traffic, were towed by the police, and 4 spills of alcohol were carried out.

Police on Monday morning said that they plan to use various tools at their disposal, including law enforcement and legal, towards marking sure the violence in sports offenses do not reoccur.