Gidi Lipkin
Eran Zahavi (Hagi Michaeli)
Bezalel Smotrich against football on Saturday and the introduction of the Premier League games. The person who is destined to be a senior minister in the new government today (Monday) came out against moving the games to early hours on Saturdays and sent a harsh letter to Erez Kalphon, chairman of the administration, in which he wrote: “Continuing the harm to the traditional public, you chose to blatantly ignore a large crowd of fans and families.” Meanwhile, Smotrich has yet to provide a solution for the tens of thousands who cannot attend games on weekdays.
Smotrich, who ignores the fact that football in the early hours of Saturday brings with it a wider audience of fans, and allows the entry of children and soldiers who cannot come to the games in the middle of the week, wrote: “Last week, a notice was published by the director of the leagues in which they announced that starting from last Saturday, some From the football games in the Israeli accommodation to the early afternoon hours. The manager’s reasoning for this ‘celebratory’ statement was to attract as many audiences as possible to the fields, especially families, children and soldiers.”
Smotrich also wrote: “This is a very puzzling message since it is the first Shabbat that began during winter time when the Shabbat comes out earlier than usual. I welcome the desire to attract new audiences to the football fields, families, soldiers, the periphery, everyone, but in my eyes the disregard and opacity towards such a large public is serious. The public and traditional sector in Israel takes a central part in all fields and actions. in security, education, economy, technology, medicine and much more. In recent years, the gates of culture and media have also been opened and it seems that only the football industry insists on closing its gates to this public. It is very unfortunate to see that, for you, new audiences do not include the audience of fans who keep Shabbat and tradition in Israel. You chose to blatantly ignore a large audience of actors, children and families.”
“The Shabbat and tradition-observing public in Israel constitutes about half of the citizens of Israel, and therefore this is the largest and most systematic exclusion in the country that takes place under your leadership every week,” Smotrich wrote and continued: “For the past year and a half, we have gathered with representatives of the Ministry of Sports with the desire to open the gates and reduce the exclusion of children and families who observe the Shabbat from the fields, It seems that the spirit of the minister and the ministry to reduce exclusion has not penetrated at all to the offices of the administration, which continues to operate in a patronizing and predatory manner.”
Smotrich continued: “In the meetings that took place with the representatives of the association and the administration, you were presented with a number of creative ideas by me together with the activists of ‘Saturday and football for everyone’, ideas that have the power to preserve and even expand the number of early games on Saturdays and holidays while taking into account the entire population in Israel. It is important to remember that even among the combat soldiers who go on Shabbat leave, there is a very large percentage of Shabbat-observing soldiers. They also deserve to enjoy Saturday night football games. Unfortunately, these proposals were not considered properly and the league director chose to act unilaterally on the issue.”
Smotrich finished and wrote: “In the meeting I held with the owner of the ‘Charlton’ broadcast franchise Mr. Eli Azor, it was specifically stated that the franchise will not be an obstacle to the regulation of the games in a reasonable time after the departure of Shabbat. On Saturdays where winter time is in effect for more than half of the season, it is possible and desirable to schedule games as early as possible. Beyond that, it is possible to promote festive and family cycles as is customary abroad during the Israeli holidays throughout the year. Thank God we have been blessed with quite a few holidays in which the children of Israel are on vacation, this is a great opportunity to allow religious and non-religious families to come to the sports fields. We are in the days when the calls for cooperation , dialogue and mutual respect flood the airwaves, I am again calling on you to come together and create an outline that will open the gates of football for everyone. Unilateral actions are the last resort that we should all stay away from. I hope that my appeal will fall on attentive ears, I have no doubt that with good will it is possible to find An excellent outline that will advance the set of interests of all desires and audiences in soccer. The exclusion of half of the Israeli public from soccer both as spectators and as active participants must stop, this is a step that is not democratic, not sporting, and not Jewish.”
