Israeli soccer club said to drop goalie amid anger over 2017 game for Palestinian team

An Arab Israeli soccer player was reportedly released from a newly-signed contract with the Hapoel Beit She’an soccer club on Sunday after fans discovered that he had appeared in a Palestinian national team match in 2017.

Ghanem Mahajna, 33, was signed by the soccer club last week but was subsequently released from his contract days later, before playing any matches, following a wave of outrage on social media over his previous appearances in the Palestinian soccer league, and a single match he played for the Palestinian national team.

Mahajna’s dismissal from the team, as reported by the Kan public broadcaster and Sport 5, came despite an initial show of support for the goalkeeper from Hapoel Beit She’an manager Guy Dayan, who told Israeli news site Double Pass that the club “believes in true coexistence,” and that the outraged fans “do not even attend the games.”

Hapoel Beit She’an did not immediately comment on the reports.

In a radio interview with Kan after he was signed by the soccer club last week, Mahajna explained that although he had been a member of Maccabi Netanya’s youth division, he transitioned to playing in the Palestinian soccer league several years ago due to an injury that prevented him from continuing with his childhood team in Israel.

After his injury, he said he “almost retired from soccer.”

“I had nowhere to go here. So a friend told me ‘there’s a league here, there’s money,” he said of his switch to the Palestinian soccer league. “Suddenly I was playing there. I had a few good seasons. I won three championships, whether for Dahariya or Hebron. I also won two cups.”

After that, he said, he spent a brief period with the Palestinian national team, and played one match in 2017.

“After that, I got married and had children. I had a hard time with the commute so I returned to the Israeli Premier League,” he recalled.

While he weighed returning to the Palestinian national team several times over the next few years, Mahajna said that he decided against it once and for all in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel.

“When I saw that the situation wasn’t good after October 7, I took a step back and decided that I wasn’t going back there because I decided that I was playing in Israel and I didn’t want any problems,” he said.

Following Hapoel Beit She’an’s reported decision to release Mahajna from the team, an unnamed acquaintance told Kan that the goalkeeper was “frustrated” and emotional over the situation.

According to the acquaintance, Mahajna’s first game with the team should have been the Hapoel Beit She’an vs Hapoel Migdal HaEmek match this past Friday, but he was ultimately left off the roster.