Do they even know the national anthem? Minorities in service of the flag – Israeli Arabs in the national football team

Abstract

This study sets out to explore prevalent attitudes amongst the Israeli-Jewish majority towards Arab footballers playing for Israel’s national team via an analysis of online reader comments (‘talkbacks’) posted by Jewish–Israeli readers to 360 online articles discussing the Israeli national football team between the years 2012–2014. Whilst some readers demonstrated a sense of support and empathy with the Arab players, the majority of Jewish–Israeli readers, however, showcased in their ‘talkbacks’ a persistent pattern of minimizing and underplaying Arab–Israeli footballers’ contribution to the national team. Despite the fact that some readers did warm to the prospect of having ‘their own Arab’ play for the national team (that is to say, an Arab footballer who also plays for the domestic team they support), most Jewish–Israeli readers continued to vocalize their protest over the ever-increasing number of Arab players in the Israeli national team.