One of their own

Tottenham soccer fans celebrate release of hostage Emily Damari

Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal supporters set aside intense rivalry to celebrate as they cover up Damari ‘kidnapped’ posters with new stickers celebrating fellow fan’s release

Emily Damari poses with a Spurs scarf, January 22, 2025. (Courtesy)
Emily Damari poses with a Spurs scarf, January 22, 2025. (Courtesy)

Fans of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer team celebrated the return of released hostage and fan Emily Damari at the team’s match on Sunday evening, a week after the dual UK-Israeli national was freed by Hamas.

Supporters of the London team, also known as Spurs, gathered outside the stadium before the match, flashing the three-fingered hand gesture that has become a symbol since Damari was seen doing it with her injured hand in one of the first photos released upon her return.

Speaking to Channel 12 news, the fans told Damari they love her and cannot wait to bring her to Tottenham.

“Emily, we are here waiting for you, we will have a party for you,” said one.

The fans also walked around the area surrounding the stadium covering up “kidnapped” stickers of Damari with new stickers bearing the slogan “she’s one of our own” and the word “home.”

“It gives us great pleasure to be able to do that,” said one fan as he put up a new sticker over an older one.

Emily Damari (right) and her mother, Mandy, after her return from Hamas captivity, at an IDF facility near the border, January 19, 2025. (IDF)

Although the team’s fans did not know Damari before she was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, she became a symbol to them, especially amid recent increased campaigning efforts to get her released.

“I don’t know her, I’ve never met her, but there was something very personal about her not just being a British hostage but being a Spurs fan. It was a fantastic moment last week when we saw her finally released,” a fan named Damian told Channel 12.

The Spurs fans were not alone in celebrating Damari’s return, however, as Channel 12 reported that fans of rival teams Chelsea and Arsenal joined them.

All three teams’ fans united in singing a chant Spurs fans have been singing in recent months, changing the lyrics to the tribute to former Tottenham skipper Harry Kane “he’s one of our own,” to “she’s one of our own, bring Emily home,” and finally on Sunday to “Emily’s home.”

Chelsea fan Mel told the channel that Damari was her hero and that her plight was “bigger than football.”

Mel’s husband, Tom, added that “Emily has put a face on the hostages that no one else has.”

Sunday’s chants and stickers were only the latest in a series of gestures Spurs fans made for Damari.

At the team’s matches in recent months, the fans released hundreds of yellow balloons in a call for her release.

Last week, a few days after Damari’s release from Hamas captivity, her mother, Mandy, posted a photo of Emily with a Spurs scarf on X and wrote that her daughter wanted to thank all the fans and the team for their support.

Mandy repeated her thanks in a video message sent to Spurs fans on Sunday.

“To the amazing Spurs supporters, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your incredible support,” she said. “Emily wants you to know that just as you helped us to bring her back, she is determined to help bring her friends home too. We love you to the moon and back and we are eternally grateful.”

Damari was taken hostage from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that started the Gaza war. She lost two fingers when shot by Hamas during her abduction. She was released last week along with Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, the first hostages to be freed in the first phase of a hostage-ceasefire deal.

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