Beitar soccer fan convicted for shouting `death to Arabs'

[Gimel]

Jerusalem Magistrate's Court has handed down the first-ever conviction of a soccer fan for incitement to racism, for shouting "death to Arabs" during a December 2001 match in the capital.

Yosef Cohen, 33, shouted the insults with numerous other soccer fans at the end of a minute of silence marking the death a few days earlier of a Beitar fan in a terror attack. The incident took place at Teddy Stadium before the start of a match between Beitar Jerusalem and Ironi Ashdod.

"I said death to the Arabs because that's what I felt at the time," Cohen said in a statement to police.

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