The stadium is empty, but Israel is still in the game.

Though any form of isolation of those responsible for genocide is welcome, the growing movement for a sports boycott of Israel has yet to translate solidarity into meaningful sporting isolation.

Two recent developments illustrate this contradiction.

The first is the decision by Alkmaar, a Dutch city north of Amsterdam, to bar visiting supporters of Israeli football club Hapoel Be’er Sheva from attending its 15th October Europa League match against AZ Alkmaar at the AFAS Stadium.

The decision followed the violence surrounding the November 2024 Ajax–Maccabi Tel Aviv match in Amsterdam, when Israeli supporters were filmed chanting racist slogans, tearing down Palestinian flags and confronting local residents.

Such behaviour is hardly unfamiliar among sections of Israeli football supporters, whose racist chants against Palestinians have included the notorious “Death to Arabs,” and “Burn down your village.”

During the November 2024 violence in Amsterdam, Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were also filmed chanting that there were “no children” left in Gaza.

During the November 2024 violence in Amsterdam, Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were also filmed chanting that there were “no children” left in Gaza.

These expressions of racism are increasingly encountering resistance from international audiences, many of whom no longer accept Israel’s carefully cultivated image of democracy, civilisation and moral exceptionalism. The genocide in Gaza has shattered those illusions.

But Israeli supporters are also confronting another reality: growing isolation and the realisation that their presence is increasingly unwelcome in sporting spaces they once took for granted. Rather than prompting introspection, such resentment is........

© Middle East Monitor