#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #RUSSIA #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) Russia, avtonom, Ran Deri: "There are people here who are fighting for a better future for everyone" - Editorial (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 As they say, "the text of a difficult fate." This interview was taken by our late

comrade Alexei "Socrates" Sutuga back in the summer of 2019 with Ran Deri, a
musician from the Israeli punk band Helem and a figure in the Hapoel ultras
movement, a Tel Aviv football club with leftist roots. The interview was taken in
English, then a translator was searched for a long time, then the translation was
adapted for a long time. But the text is still interesting. Because in Russia not
much is known about the anti-xenophobic, libertarian scene in Israel. Also, the
interview is very similar to the current discussion about the fascisization of
Russia: within any militaristic regime, not all society is infected with
chauvinism. There is always some healthy part of it.

Socrates: Please introduce yourself. Were you born in Tel Aviv?

Ran: My name is Ran Deri, I was born in the Tel Aviv area. My father is from
Morocco, my mother is from Yemen. Like many people in Israel, I have Jewish roots
from all over the world. When my parents emigrated to this country, they were
lucky to be in the center of Israel, and not in some hole in the south or north
of the country, where a person can be stuck for life. Therefore, I lived a
significant part of my life in Tel Aviv, it was there that I became a Hapoel Tel
Aviv fan and got acquainted with the punk scene. My whole life is connected with
this city, everything in my life happened in Tel Aviv. When people ask me where
you are from, I say Tel Aviv, not Israel.

Socrates:  What is the difference between Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel?

Ran: It's like the difference between heaven and hell. Tel Aviv is a very liberal
city. You can do almost anything you want. No judgment for how you look or what
your sexual orientation is. There are many clubs, many bars, many opportunities.
You can live very well here. Life is much simpler in other cities, and simpler
sometimes means being surrounded by less interesting people, less culture, less
art. People just go to work and come home, no other life. So for me, Tel Aviv is
the most suitable place in Israel. I've been to Berlin more times than Jerusalem,
although it's a 40 minute drive.

Socrates:  Has Tel Aviv always been such a place? Did the government plan it this
way? Or did people do what they have now?

Ran: I don't know how it all happened. But even when I was a child, Tel Aviv had
a slogan: "A city without stops." He was always open and alive. When I was a kid,
Tel Aviv was also considered a party place. When I grew up, Tel Aviv became the
same cool city for me as London, Paris, Moscow. For me, the capital of Israel is
Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem.

Socrates: When did you start going to football matches? What club did you root
for? And why?

Ran:I started going to Hapoel Tel Aviv games when I was 15 or 16 years old. I
went to high school and I was the only punk there. Everyone was hitting on me,
trying to fight me, and all of a sudden I saw two other guys who were listening
to heavy metal and stuff, and we "sang" with them. One of them has been an avid
Hapoel fan since the age of five. And to this day we joke that he made[me]a
monster. It was easy for me to communicate with people from Hapoel Tel Aviv
because they have leftist views, against the mainstream. Hapoel Tel Aviv is not a
small club, we are part of a network of the largest clubs in Israel, but we are
against Beitar, against Maccabi, against the Israeli mentality. We are only proud
of Hapoel, we represent only Hapoel, not Israel. So it was easy for me to accept
this idea, because I grew up listening to Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys,
Rage Against the Machine, and all the time in my head was: "Fuck you", "Fuck
everyone else", "Fuck everyone". By meeting people from Hapoel, I have a place
where everyone thinks the same as me. Even when I was in the punk scene, I didn't
feel that connected to it. Because the punk scene is small, there was a lot of
violence, fights, alcohol and no ideology. No ideology other than "Fuck the
police" and "Fuck you". And for me it was pointless. Only when I found Hapoel did
I find a place for alternative people. It's like a home for fans of alternative
football. Even when I was in the punk scene, I didn't feel that connected to it.
Because the punk scene is small, there was a lot of violence, fights, alcohol and
no ideology. No ideology other than "Fuck the police" and "Fuck you". And for me
it was pointless. Only when I found Hapoel did I find a place for alternative
people. It's like a home for fans of alternative football. Even when I was in the
punk scene, I didn't feel that connected to it. Because the punk scene is small,
there was a lot of violence, fights, alcohol and no ideology. No ideology other
than "Fuck the police" and "Fuck you". And for me it was pointless. Only when I
found Hapoel did I find a place for alternative people. It's like a home for fans
of alternative football.

Socrates: Was Hapoel Tel Aviv founded by socialists? Was it formed by socialists
who were also nationalists? What is the current ideological position of the club?

Ran: So let's start from the beginning. Hapoel Tel Aviv was founded in 1923,
almost 100 years ago, before the Holocaust, before the founding of the Israeli
state, the group that formed Hapoel Tel Aviv was part of Maccabi Tel Aviv. They
separated because the ideology of the Macabists was - victory at any cost, only
victory, victory, victory. (Championship of the club, snobbery, superiority over
all the others, - "Auton") . Hapoel's agenda was: "We believe in workers"
("Hapoel" in Hebrew means worker, - "Auton").Football should not only be
professional, it should be accessible to everyone. This is not a business, this
is a way of life, everyone should have the opportunity to play sports. Hapoel, at
the same time, is a Zionist club. All the big football teams in Israel, all the
sports clubs have political overtones. The left wing has Hapoel Tel Aviv, the
right wing has Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the Jewish radical nationalists have Beitar
Jerusalem. And they use football to express their ideas, to lure people to them.
They use football as a "megaphone" to get people to come. So, Hapoel Tel Aviv was
created MAPAI (Workers' Party of Israel). It was the leading political party.
Until the mid-90s, if you went to root for Hapoel, then you are a leftist. If you
went to cheer for Beitar, it means that you are right-wing and anti-Arab, but if
you support Maccabi, then a supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu. But then the big
money came in and changed the rules of the game, because now that you're making
big money, political parties can no longer control you, and private owners have
other goals. They work not on ideology, but on capitalist motives. They want
football to only buy players, sell players and stuff like that. But Hapoel Tel
Aviv has always remained true to its leftist roots. In Arab villages we have many
children's teams. We have many projects with refugees, with the Ethiopian
community and with Arab football players. They want football to only buy players,
sell players and stuff like that. But Hapoel Tel Aviv has always remained true to
its leftist roots. In Arab villages we have many children's teams. We have many
projects with refugees, with the Ethiopian community and with Arab football
players. They want football to only buy players, sell players and stuff like
that. But Hapoel Tel Aviv has always remained true to its leftist roots. In Arab
villages we have many children's teams. We have many projects with refugees, with
the Ethiopian community and with Arab football players.

Hapoel was the first team in which an Arab player became a star in the 80s. The
first Arab to come out and play in a Hapoel Tel Aviv jersey in Jerusalem and
score a championship goal. You know, it's incredible, because a few years before
that there was a war against Jordan and Egypt, and at that time it was not easy
to say that everyone is equal. For Hapoel, it was important how you kick the
ball, and not the place where your mother was born and to which god you pray. So,
in the name of being non-political, you become more political. It was a bold
statement back then to say that football is not politics. Such a statement is
more political than you might think. This focus of the club attracted more
leftists and liberals to it. We are the team that gets the most support among the
Arabs (living in Israel - "Avton"), even though there are Bnei Sakhnin and other
Arab teams. Because they recognize that we are the first to lend a helping hand
to the lower strata of the Israeli population.

Socrates: Can you tell us about Hapoel Tel Aviv's rivals and allies in Israel?

Ran:As I have already explained, football is a political phenomenon. The same
enemies as in politics are in football. The most ardent enemies of "Hapoel" are
"Beitar". It's like "left versus right" and in the middle is Maccabi Tel Aviv,
which is also a political rival, but it's more of an urban rivalry for control of
Tel Aviv.[...]The real enemies for me, which I think about before going to bed,
are "Beitar". Because, in my opinion, they personify everything bad in this
world. Especially in Israel. Because this is the only team that has taken as a
rule: "If you are an Arab, you cannot play in this team." There is no other
similar example. Many teams have racist fans, but this is the racist team. When a
team behaves racist, the fans feel there is no need to hide their fascism. They
feel that they can go to the stadium and shout "Death to the Arabs" and the like.
"Beitar Jerusalem" is the biggest enemy. And because of this rivalry, the only
friendship we have is with Bnei Sakhnin. Because they are the most hated team,
because they are the most successful team from the Arab city.[Nationalists]are
crazy about it. When you go to a game between "Beitar" and "Sakhnin", and
"Sakhnin" scores a goal and wins on "Teddy"(Beitar's home stadium in Jerusalem is
Autonom) for them it's like an atomic bomb falling on Jerusalem. It's amazing, I
love it. Because of this, the only friendship of Hapoel fans, and not the
official Hapoel Tel Aviv club, is friendship with Bnei Sakhnin. Because this
friendship makes everyone angry.

SOCRATES:  Also for the official administration of the club?

Ran: No, it's just the fans. For club owners, this is pure business. They are not
looking for friendship. Hapoel Tel Aviv has good values as a club, but they will
not form a brotherhood with an Arab team. As I said, the Hapoel Tel Aviv club was
very politically active, with all the schools of football among the poor and the
promotion of Arab players, but that's enough for them. It is friendship that
exists only between Ultras Hapoel and Ultras Sakhnin.

Socrates: What about the Maccabi Haifa ultras?

Ran: No. Personally, I have friends among them, but we have a different
worldview. We clashed a lot with them. There was a time when they saw us as their
main rivals. But we're like, "Wait in line. After we deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv,
Beitar and Beit Shaana, maybe we'll have time for you." You see, everyone hates
us. You go and ask Beitar who is your main rival? Ultras Hapoel. You ask "Maccabi
Haifa" who is your main rival? Ultras Hapoel. You ask "Maccabi Tel Aviv", who is
your main rival? Everyone will tell you "Ultras Hapoel". Why? Because they think
that because we're leftists, we have to be small and cute. But when they fight
us, they screw up and it blows their minds.

Socrates: "Hapoel" against the whole world.

Ran: That's how it is. It's not even on purpose. It's just the way it is. Maccabi
Haifa has a lot of great guys. But they are still Maccabi. They still want to be
"big, successful and beautiful". We have a different agenda. We are closer to
Hapoel Ramat Gan, Hapoel Katamon. These are smaller clubs. We do not have
official friendship with them. We have a personal friendship. Like between me and
the drummer of Helem , Arik. He is one of the devoted fans of Hapoel Ramat Gan.
But at the club level, we have never been officially friends.

Socrates: So if it's friendship, it's only personal?

Ran: It's only with Sakhnin, because we believe in their people and their way. In
2017, we held the AntiRa tournament together. It's something really big. An Arab
and Jewish team together host an anti-racism event. It was really inspiring.

Socrates: Who are Hapoel's friends outside of Israel?

Ran: First of all, around 2005 we went to Hamburg for the first time on AntiRa.
And there we met the St. Pauli ultras and became friends. After some time, we
officially became friends with "Omonia Nicosia" from Cyprus and Ultras Inferno
from Standard Liege. Those are the three closest friendships we have. We also
have good contacts with Ternana from Italy and we have friends from AEK Athens.
But we call our official friendship the YOBOV brotherhood.

Skorath - Why YOBOV?

Ran - It's just a joke.

Socrates - What does this word mean?

Ran: There was a player who once came here to Israel for some trials. His name
was Christo Jobov. And we began to call each other Jobov in his honor. Hey Jobov,
hey Jobov, hey Jobov.. Joke.

Socrates: In Russian it sounds funny, because it looks like a curse.

Why didn't you mention Celtic ultras among your friends?

Ran:I think most of them don't like us. Because they are very pro-Palestinian and
think very narrowly. For them, if you are from Israel, then this must mean that
you are against Palestine. But they don't understand that we here in a fascist
country are doing our best to maintain friendship between Arabs and Jews in
Israel and Palestine. We are trying. But, in their opinion, this is not enough.
They want something pure, as they understand it. In the ultras scene, similar
processes take place as in the punk scene. Most people from Italy, Ireland,
Scotland and England do not have a good opinion of Israel. They think we are all
fucking Bibi (Benyamin Natanyahu - Former Prime Minister of Israel). They blame
us for the crimes of our government that we are fighting. But they are not
fighting, but we are. And so it turns out that we participate in some anti-racist
tournaments. When we organized AntiRa 2017, they sent us a letter saying they
didn't want to come because they didn't want to support the occupation of
Palestine. The Sant Pauli people tried to explain to them that they were making a
mistake. But they have too big egos to understand that life is never black and
white. We are here in conflict and trying to change something.

Socrates: Has Hapoel ever encountered anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe?

Ran: Yes. Between 2000-2012, we played a lot in Eastern Europe. Of course, when
we played in Bratislava, in Kyiv, there were some problems in such places. We
played in Bosnia. We played against many teams. From Moldova, Latvia, Estonia.
And we had a lot of trouble there. There were many interesting stories. The
biggest one was when we played Legia Warszawa.

Socrates: Did you have the biggest conflict with Legia Warszawa?

Ran: This is the biggest Nazi team in Poland. So when we played against them, we
made a huge banner with communist symbols in all the stands, and they went crazy.
When we went there to play, they made the same banner, only with an "X" over it.
Also very big. They put in a lot of effort. They also made a poster against us:
"Jihadi Lehi". Or when we played in Scotland with Celtic, they brought a lot of
Palestinian flags, as if that would make us angry... But that doesn't make us
angry, we support the same thing. They think it will drive us crazy, like you go
to Greece and wave the Turkish flag to try and piss them off.

Socrates: Tell us how the police treat the Hapoel ultras? Do you remember any
police mistreatment of ultras?

Ran:First of all, I returned after a five-year ban on visiting the stadium. The
biggest enemy of all Israeli ultras is the police. Because, as you know, in
Israel there are many problems with religious people, and with the Arab
population, they all regularly clash with the police, so they have a special unit
called YASAM. There is the state police, the border police, and there are YASAM -
the biggest gorillas. That's who they send to football games - the craziest cops.
They know how to fight. This is not ordinary police, it's like riot police. We
joke all the time that if for one weekend we send the Israeli police to Greece
and we have the Greek police here, we will see a different situation. Since the
Israeli police are not coming to prevent you from fighting Beitar, they are
coming to fight. A few years ago, after a long struggle, we managed to stop the
police, instead of police, security guards appeared at the stadiums. Private
people who are paid for security. For the police, this was a big blow to the ego
and to the pocket, because for each game they receive about 150 euros in salary.
And suddenly we "take money out of their pocket." Therefore, they do everything
to return. And how do they do it? They are trying to show the public and the
media that since they are gone, the fans have become more aggressive and we have
to bring the police back to the stadium. Because it's big money. About 400 police
officers will be involved in the Hapoel game against Maccabi, who will receive
from 50 to 60 thousand euros. So they are doing everything in their power to
arrest more, beat, create problems, vilify us. They always provoke us and then
arrest us and say, "You see!

Socrates: Can Hapoel be called a "city club"? A club where the fans are made up
of the population of his city?

RAS:No. Maccabi Tel Aviv has fans from Eilat to Kiryat Shmona. Just like Maccabi
Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem. Because it's not just the pride of the city. It's
about your political thinking. You can be from a kibbutz in the north and love
Hapoel because you are leftist and believe in this football club. Israel is very
small. It makes no difference whether you live in Herzliya, Raanan or Tel Aviv,
you get into the car and in thirty or fifty minutes you find yourself at the
stadium. And if you look at the team from Ra'anana, they have zero fans. Maybe
five fans, because anyone who is into football is likely to support one of the
most successful teams with history and heritage. Pride for one's city is not
common here. If I was born in Germany, in Bremen, I would be a fan of Bremen. Or
if you are going to another city, where everyone supports the local club, even if
the club is in the fifth league and plays shitty football, you go to the stadium
and see 15 thousand people. Everything is wrong here. The only teams that have a
crowd are the big five or six.

Socrates: How did you get the football ban? How many fans get banned?

Ran:I won't go into details, it's not such a good story. Ten years ago, if you
got into a fight, you got banned for one month. After some time, the ban became
two months, then six months, a year, two years, and so on. Over the years, the
punishments became more and more severe. Ten years ago they didn't take us
seriously, chaos reigned, the police didn't really understand what was going on.
They didn't understand how deep the hatred could be, how serious the violence
could be. Years went by, and especially after we kicked the police off the
terraces, they really started to take it more seriously to prove to the
government that the use of force was necessary. That their work is important,
that the money they received is justified, and that they should return to the
stadiums. So yeah in the last few years, there have been more and more conflicts
with the police, but not only here. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Beitar, Maccabi Haifa can
have waves of arrests where 50 to 60 people are arrested in one night.

Socrates: What about pyrotechnics? It is legal?

Ran: No, illegal. If you get caught with a flare, you could be in big trouble. In
Israel, most of the pyrotechnics are stolen from the army. We don't have a store
where you can buy pyrotechnics, so you need to get it in another way. So
basically it's a crime to have pyrotechnics on football. Also because you have to
somehow steal it.

Socrates: How did you connect punk rock, football and Hapoel? And if you had to
choose between Hapoel or the punk rock scene, which would you choose?

Ran:Like I said before, I don't feel like I chose him, I feel like he chose me.
Because when I started rooting for Hapoel, its ideology was already in my head:
protest, "To hell with the system" and so on. If you notice, one of the symbols
of Hapoel's ultras is the devil, which is also the symbol of the Kreator group. I
mean, there's always been people in ultras who listened to punk rock and heavy
metal and all that stuff, and that's had a big impact on the aesthetic of what we
do. Banners, fonts, stickers, it will always be something that has to do with the
devil or something dark, and it will be difficult for people outside of this
genre to communicate. I remember one game, the ultras made a banner with a quote
from Metallica: "Nothing else matters", and for the first time I thought that
football and music merged into one. It seemed to me, that these two parts of my
life are no longer separated. Love for heavy music and football. I think it was
2008 or something like that. When you grow up in the punk scene, you may
sometimes think that punk is about looks, but punk in my eyes has nothing to do
with looks, it has nothing to do even with music. Punk is a mental attitude. It's
being against, it's being Anti, it's being rude. Just like ultras in football. If
you take away all the appearance, clothes, hair, they are the same punks. In the
last couple of years, many of the young guys from Hapoel are also attracted to
punk, they come to concerts, and suddenly there is a new wave that revitalizes
the scene. The punk rock scene is really small, and with about 20 new people
joining it, who looked different but were just as crazy, it already started a
movement. Over time, people have learned to accept us, and I think that has a lot
to do with the concept that punk is not about what you look like. You can be a
skater, a hipster, an anarchist, a football fan or whatever, it doesn't matter.
The important thing is that the show is all together, having a good time. And if
you look at Helem's performances in that regard, we're trying to create unity
between punks and football fans, we look a lot more "atmospheric" than other
bands. Because the way I write music, the way I write lyrics, is mostly inspired
by the stadium, so some of our anthems can sound a lot like football chants. The
important thing is that the show is all together, having a good time. And if you
look at Helem's performances in that regard, we're trying to create unity between
punks and football fans, we look a lot more "atmospheric" than other bands.
Because the way I write music, the way I write lyrics, is mostly inspired by the
stadium, so some of our anthems can sound a lot like football chants. The
important thing is that the show is all together, having a good time. And if you
look at Helem's performances in that regard, we're trying to create unity between
punks and football fans, we look a lot more "atmospheric" than other bands.
Because the way I write music, the way I write lyrics, is mostly inspired by the
stadium, so some of our anthems can sound a lot like football chants.

Socrates: When did punk start in Israel?

Ran: The first bands appeared in the seventies, but the real punk scene started
in the nineties, when the bands were more in the vein of UK 82. Lots of Iroquois
and songs mostly about nonsense, and then in the mid-nineties there was a big
fight that caused a split between left wing punks and what we call "arso punks"
(gop punks). Left wing punks are more political, more committed to activism,
veganism and very pro-Palestinian. Arso-punks were more into parties, drinking
and fighting. I personally don't think it's bad. Punk is about fighting, but punk
is also about thinking, punk is about support, but sometimes it's anti-social, it
doesn't have one dimension. When I grew up in the punk scene because I have dark
skin, the left wing political punks didn't really like me because I don't like
them. Most of them are from good families, from the kibbutz, from Tel Aviv,
higher social class than me. But I hated spending too much time with arso punks
because there was nothing special about it, a lot of conflicts, so in the end I
said "fuck it all", so I left the punk scene for a few years and focused more on
football. Football all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, because I didn't
feel at home in the punk scene. It was not an uplifting, but a depressing place.
In the last few years, everything has changed, first of all musically, there are
a lot of really good bands, a lot of concerts, and the audience is getting
bigger. Why are there more and more people? Because there are fewer conflicts.
People are trying to talk to each other, they are not looking for petty
conflicts. People come to concerts more openly. When is the evening of the show
you will try to listen to all bands, not just your friends. So I think there
hasn't been a separation trend in the last few years. I think the last five or
six years, especially the last two or three years, is the golden age of Israeli punk.

Socrates: Do the police sometimes shut down punk concerts?

Ran:    Sometimes... But usually it's not because of the concert. They just come
and see a bunch of young guys who are having fun, drinking and looking a little
different, so they, being assholes, think that people will fuck at concerts.

Socrates: So the public and the police don't see the punk scene as a threat?

Ran: We're too small. Ultras - yes, they say they are negative, dangerous,
violent and all that. But the punk scene doesn't get that much attention.

Socrates: I wanted to ask you some questions about your group Helem. When did you
form? And why?

Ran:We formed Helem around August 2017. And it happened because I was not allowed
to go to football stadiums and I had a lot of energy. I wanted to do a lot of
things, but there was nowhere. During this period, I worked a lot with refugees.
At that time we had a refugee crisis in Israel.[I wanted to take a break from
this activity]. Every punk I met had their own band. So I decided that I also
wanted to start a band to express what I had in mind. We created a group Oi! Lo,
who covered the famous Oi! songs. One day after rehearsal, I asked the guys to
stay a little longer to try out some of the songs I had written. And after a
couple of rehearsals, we formed. It was really important for me to create a group
that sings in Hebrew. Many Israeli bands prefer to sing in English. Many of them
do not touch on the topic of politics so much in their texts. It was important
for me to have a political statement in Hebrew because that is my mission. I sing
for Israelis and Hebrew is my native language, it makes the connection more
meaningful.

Socrates: How many albums do you have?

Ran:   We have two albums (at the time of publication of the interview, Helem has
a new album out). We recorded the first one five months after we formed. And the
second one we released a couple of months ago. We toured Germany and we were
lucky to meet a lot of people who were interested in the Israeli scene. I was
happy to talk to everyone who is interested in the Israeli scene, Israeli
politics, the occupation of Palestine, the refugee situation and the atmosphere
of Israeli reality in general. Although we sing in Hebrew, I'm glad that our
music manages to attract the attention of people living outside of Israel. The
cool thing is that the second album is being released on vinyl on two German
labels. They don't understand what we say, but they say they feel it. For me,
this is really cool and important.

Socrates: Are there clearly right-wing punk bands in Israel?

Ran: No, they're gone now. There used to be several. But I don't think even they
were really right at all. They were more reactionary groups towards many leftist
punk bands in Israel. There are right wing bands in the metal scene. But then
again, for them it's more of a personal political position. They usually don't
make it too obvious in their music or clothing.

Socrates: Is there Arab punk rock in Israel?

Ran: No.

Socrates: Any Arab metal bands?

Ran:No. There is hip-hop. And it's usually very political and social. And they
sing about many important topics. But yes, punk is more of a western phenomenon
and generally not that popular in the Arab world. Although there are punk scenes
in Indonesia, Turkey and some other non-western countries, they are still very
small and unpopular, for the most part, in the Arab world. Sometimes when I
invite people to play in Tel Aviv, they tell me that they will only come and play
if they can play in Palestine as well. It is difficult for them to explain that
there are no connoisseurs of their music in Palestine. I would love to put on a
concert for them in Ramallah or somewhere else, take them to the border, and even
try to sneak in with them, but in the Palestinian territories they just don't
listen to this kind of music. It's like in Kuwait there are no connoisseurs of
Japanese pop music. Do you understand what I mean? People in Palestine are more
prone to survival. They have limited internet access, live under a repressive
regime, and are much more closed to many Western cultural influences, especially
alternative ones like punk rock.

Socrates: Coming back to football, which football clubs are the most popular
among Israeli Arabs?

Ran: Hapoel Tel Aviv, Bnei Sakhnin, Maccabi Haifa. "Maccabi Haifa" is very
popular among the Arabs of northern Israel. But many of them - and there are
indeed more and more of them - support their local teams. If you go to a city
like Um El Fahem and visit the derby between Hapoel Um El Fahem and Maccabi Um El
Fahem, you will see about seven thousand people in the stadium. They are in the
third division, but they still manage to collect more viewers than some teams
from the big leagues. Football is also a community and not just a competition, so
it's a great chance for many people to come together during the football matches
of their local teams, and you often see this in lower division teams from Arab
cities.

Socrates: Could you tell us about the goals you set for your Helem group?

Ran:I think that the goal of our group is the same one that I put in football and
in other aspects of my life: spreading the idea of equality. I feel that Israeli
society as a whole is not okay right now, there are a lot of social and economic
problems in our society, and I think it's really important that people recognize
and support the anti-fascist scene here in Israel. People need to know that we
are at war here and when I hear punks from abroad talking about not going to
Israel for one reason or another, it upsets me because they are actually making a
huge generalization, based on ignorance. You should not look at the situation in
black and white, there are people here who are fighting for a better future for
everyone in this place, regardless of their age, skin color, sexual orientation
or anything else. I must emphasize I support the BDS*. When there is a concert by
Madonna or Bon Jovi, it really legitimizes the occupation of Palestine. This is
really a false picture of "everything is fine" here. But when a punk band doesn't
want to perform in front of a crowd of 200 people who are overwhelmingly against
the occupation, against racism, mostly leftists and anarchists, I see it as
discrimination against those Israelis who fight all this shit every day. It's
like someone told me they won't play in Russia because Putin is persecuting
homosexuals. They will never do that because they will never miss a chance to
play in front of a crowd of 3,000. It is much easier to boycott a crowd of two
hundred people.

* BDS - Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a global political campaign and social
movement calling for economic and political pressure on Israel to stop what
campaign organizers describe as violations of international law against Arabs
living in Palestine.

https://avtonom.org/pages/ran-deri-zdes-est-lyudi-kotorye-boryutsya-za-luchshee-budushchee-dlya-vseh
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