A banner unfurled Tuesday night by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters during a rescheduled soccer match against Hapoel Petah Tikva (4–0) ignited anger among bereaved families of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans killed in the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
The sign, written in English, read: “fuck Hamas, fuck St. Pauli, fuck Hapoel.” By placing Hamas — the terror group responsible for the October 7 massacre in southern Israel — on the same level as Hapoel Tel Aviv and Germany’s St. Pauli football club, the banner was condemned as deeply offensive.
St. Pauli has long maintained ties with Hapoel Tel Aviv supporters. Its fans, who for years expressed solidarity with Israel, recently raised their own banner ahead of a Bundesliga match against Augsburg that read: “Benjamin Netanyahu, fascist, stop killing civilians in Gaza.”
The uproar drew further attention because Maccabi Tel Aviv had previously criticized Hapoel Be’er Sheva fans for displaying a banner equating Hamas with UEFA. This time, however, the controversial message came from Maccabi’s own stands.
Bereaved families’ response
Families who lost relatives in the October 7 attack and subsequent battles voiced sharp criticism.
“Dozens of Hapoel Tel Aviv supporters were murdered on October 7 in the Gaza border communities, at the Nova music festival, and since then,” several family representatives said in a joint statement. “Now, Maccabi fans hang a disgraceful banner like this. How can Hamas be compared to anything Israeli? It is embarrassing and offensive to the memory of the murdered.”
The families urged the club to hold its fans accountable: “If those fans had the same loyalty to the state as Hapoel fans, this country would be a better place,” they said.