Anti-Palestinian racist incidents spike across Israel
Nadav Rapaport reports in Middle East Eye on 12 October 2026.
Palestinian football fans attacked
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans threw stones at a bus carrying supporters of Bnei Sakhnin, a Palestinian-led football club, on Saturday, smashing its windows after a heated match between the teams ended in a goalless draw at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv. One Bnei Sakhnin supporter was injured by shards of glass from the shattered windows.
According to Israeli sports outlet Sport 5, police searched for suspects immediately after the attack but failed to locate them. An investigation has since been opened. Police told Sport 5 that they “view every display of violence in sports venues, and beyond, with seriousness and will act resolutely against those involved in violent incidents, to safeguard public safety and security”.
On Sunday, Bnei Sakhnin officials wrote to the police, describing the attack by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters – whose fan base has been accused of racism – as “a serious warning sign of the development of an improper and dangerous phenomenon of deliberate harm to the fans of the club”. “We will not allow violence to sway us from our path,” the letter reportedly said. Erez Halfon, head of the Israeli Professional Football Leagues, condemned the attack, saying that “this violence is not representative of Israeli football”.
Saturday’s incident was not the first reported attack on Bnei Sakhnin by supporters of a Jewish-led Israeli club this season. In August, Maccabi Netanya fans attacked Bnei Sakhnin players following a match between the teams.
Arabic-speaking woman abused on bus
A young Israeli Druze woman was subjected to a racist attack by a group of young Jewish Israelis on a bus in Tel Aviv last August after speaking Arabic on the phone, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
According to Daniel Amram, an Israeli independent journalist known for his right-wing views, the attackers shouted at the woman: “Stinky Arab, get off the bus, you have no place in this country.”
Months after the incident, the woman’s brother obtained CCTV footage of the attack and vowed to sue those responsible for humiliating his sister.
“A friend of mine called me, and I started talking to him in Arabic, as usual,” the woman told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday. “Suddenly, I felt something hit my head.”