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January, 2013. A secretive transfer deal transported two Muslim players into the heart of Israel and the Jewish oriented Beitar Jerusalem F.C., leading to the most racist campaign in Israeli sport. One season and one football team in crisis, as power, money and politics fuel a club spiralling out of control.
Director: Maya Zinshtein
Share Forever Pure with your friends and community. Racism in sports is happening all over the world and needs to be brought into the spotlight.
Start the conversation towards positive change.
Support the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)’s campaigns to eliminate racism, discrimination and intolerance from the sport of soccer.
Report racism in sports. Organizations like Kick It Out have a number of reporting methods available to anybody who has seen, heard or been on the receiving end of discriminatory abuse in a soccer environment.
Keep up with Get Inclusive in the Game, an organization that promotes “voluntary activities in sport, together with social inclusion, equal opportunities and awareness of the importance of health-enhancing physical activity through increased participation in, and equal access to, sport for all.”
Coach youth soccer teams. Teach them that racism and discrimination is unacceptable. Use resources from Show Racism The Red Card to help take action against racism.
“I thought I was making a film with a happy end. Nobody knew how badly it would go.”
Listen to the podcast episode from No Film School.
“Beitar Jerusalem is a symbol of rightwing Israel. But in 2012-2013 the club signed two Chechen Muslim players, enraging Beitar’s hardcore fans, La Familia, some of whom sing of being racist. Some of Israel’s political leaders find La Familia embarrassing. But do they simply reflect a wider problem facing Israel – a polarised society?”
Watch the video from The Guardian.
“After being faced with accusations of treating racism lightly for years, FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, is stepping up its fight against discrimination in the sport.”
Read the article from Quartz.
“Jerusalem’s FC Beitar signed two Muslim players from Russia in February and — intentionally or not — stirred a national controversy.”
Continue reading on Grantland.
“As an immigrant myself, who came to Israel from Russia, the issue of being a stranger and being accepted in a new place has been part of my life for a long time. So I guess by making this film, for me it was also a way to go again through this process from being a stranger to be a part of a group.”
Continue reading on Independent Lens.
“The disdain for people of African descent has become too commonplace within the culture of football. Football is known as the beautiful game, but when racism continues to enter the picture, the beauty gets erased. The governing bodies of the Union of European Football Associations and International Federation of Football Association have done little to quell this epidemic festering among its ranks.”
Continue reading on Salon.
“For more than a decade, La Familia has been a blight on Israeli soccer, a violently racist scourge that chants ‘death to Arabs’ throughout matches and has pressured Beitar Jerusalem management — successfully, at least up to now — not to sign any Israeli-Arab players. But the arrests this summer could mean that the group’s power and infamy are finally waning.”
Read more on The Washington Post.
Visit the page for Forever Pure’s successfully funded Kickstarter Campaign.
“We are announcing that if racist songs will be heard from the stand occupied by Beitar Jerusalem fans, the team will leave the pitch, whether during the match or during the warm-up. It will not return to the pitch, with all the consequences of such an act being clear to us, including the possible cancellation of the match,” read Beitar’s statement.
Continue reading on The Jerusalem Post.
"Zinshtein’s film moves from a document on the rise of Israel’s most infamous club to an exposé into the nation’s systemic racism... The comparison to Trump’s America is simply too uncanny to ignore."
Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage
"Documentarian Maya Zinshtein has crafted something remarkable with the incendiary and complex."
Andrew Parker, Toronto Film Scene
