מבוא - "Football is life"
- At the outset, I found it appropriate to clarify that the court is aware of the significance of the outcome of the judgment on the teams, and in particular on the fans of the teams, and I will dedicate a few words to this.
The game of soccer was perceived in the past, and to some extent even today, by certain parts of society, as a game that signifies social decadence and preoccupation with "bread and amusement" rather than on essential issues. Against this background, the saying of the late Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz about "22 hooligans kicking the ball" is remembered as a symbol of the degeneration of youth.
- However, for other parts of society, the game of soccer is an essential component of their lives. The game of soccer has long been not just a "game" in its usual sense, but a complete and complete cultural and communal framework for many people. This is not the place to elaborate on the importance of the game of soccer for fans and the community, when beyond being a "game", it is an essential component of the fan's identity and has real implications for his life, such as: establishing a bond between parents and their children, creating a supportive community, giving meaning to leisure time, making it easier to cope with life's challenges, and more.
On this matter of the meaning that football sympathy gives to a fan, I will turn to Mr. Omri Hochfeld's essay "Because Without Hapoel I Have No Meaning": Can Sports Sympathy Be Meaningful in Life?" (Submitted to the Department of Philosophy of the Hebrew University, 2023), at the end of which the author concludes that authentic sports fandom, which expresses the fan's identity, and is expressed in his self-definition and active belonging to the fan community, can give meaning.
- If we needed proof of the positive significance of the game of soccer in Israel and its impact on society in general, and on soccer fans in particular, we would have received this proof in the terrible circumstances of the abductees of the October Shiva events, both in the support of the fan communities for the abductees and their families, and in the power that football sympathy gave to the abductees in captivity, according to them.
Thus, for example, we can note the demonstrations of support by the fans of the Hapoel Jerusalem soccer team for the charming and beloved young man, the late Hirsch Goldberg-Poland, even before it became known about his brutal murder by Hamas terrorists, and of his commemoration projects by those fans afterwards.