Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been targeted by a huge wave of protests that has swept across the country over the last few weeks. Apart from protesting the corruption charges facing the prime minister, demonstrators are also protesting the flailing economy and the government’s alleged mishandling of the coronavirus crisis. The biggest protest so far took place Aug. 1, when more than 10,000 demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem.

What really set this demonstration apart, however, was that opponents of these protests were joined by a new group, La Familia, which represents the most extreme fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club. The group is made up of members of the far-right, notorious for their abject hatred of Arabs and the left.

La Familia had gained attention in Israel and around the world in 2013, because of the sign, “Beitar Forever Pure,” they raised. Group members had just learned that then-owner of the team Arcady Gaydamak planned on hiring two Chechen Muslim players. Then, in 2018, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced eight members of the group to prison sentences ranging from 22 months to 48 months for violent attacks, including one in 2015, in which a fan of Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer team was attacked with a hammer. Also in 2018, La Familia members had verbally violent responses when Beitar owner Moshe Hogeg recruited Ali Mohamed, a Muslim player from Niger.

Now, seven years after the sign incident, it looks like La Familia fan club has turned into the attack dog of opponents of the protests against Netanyahu and his government. On July 30, for instance, they attacked reporter Yossi Eli and his team from Channel 13 News, which was sent to cover the protests in Jerusalem. According to Eli’s report, they then went looking for local Arabs to attack.