Meet Beitar Jerusalem FC, the most hated and, perhaps, most beloved sports franchise in Israel.
On Thursday night here, this soccer team lost the second leg of its two-game, home-and-home playoff series 4-1 against a Belgian club, thereby failing to qualify for a coveted spot in the Europa League for the 2015-16 season.
And Beitar didn't just lose the match; it was annihilated 9-2 on aggregate. But the 10,000 dedicated fans, crammed together in Jerusalem's Teddy Kollek Stadium, cheered them mightily to the bitter end.
Along with getting outplayed by the slick, disciplined Royal Charleroi team, Beitar was still reeling from the controversy surrounding their series-opening game in Belgium on July 16, where Beitar fans behaved horrendously and the team was penalized two players for almost the whole match. It lost 5-1.
Beitar supporters, including members of the French Jewish Defence League, began their visit by rampaging in the streets of Charleroi, picking fights with fans of the local team. The JDL, founded by the late extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, whose movement and political party, Kach, are banned in Israel and several other countries, claims affiliation to the militaristic Beitar movement to which Mr. Kahane belonged as a youth.
The fans arrived at the stadium and hung their Kach flags alongside Israel's national flags. Charleroi fans chided them by giving them the Nazi straight-arm salute, which drove Beitar supporters crazy.
Dozens of flares and fireworks were thrown on the field, delaying the game. Later, the Charleroi goalkeeper was hit in the head with some object thrown from the Beitar crowd. Despite all that, Beitar players came over to their fans at the end of the game and applauded them.
The behaviour did draw the ire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel's national image was at stake.
The fans, many of them members of the organization known as La Familia, couldn't care less. Their Facebook page praised what they called a "great manly display" that represented Israel with honour.
Team owner Eli Tabib, an American turned Israeli, said he was so embarrassed he was selling the team and moving back to the United States. He said he was ashamed of the fans.
During the Thursday match in Jerusalem, Beitar wore yellow-and-black jerseys with no advertising on the front. Their major sponsor didn't want to be seen as having anything to do with them.
Frankly, I went to Thursday's game expecting trouble. The police did too. They posted Border Police (a tough unit) in every section, and had Border Police on horseback outside the stadium (they only use them in the most tumultuous riots).
The fans did go nuts at the game, but in one of the most positive, supportive displays of cheering I've ever seen. Shrill whistling rang through the stadium whenever the Charleroi players took control of the ball, but that, despite the score, was not nearly as often as Beitar had possession.
The fans acted as if they were lovestruck. One of their biggest cheers as the players warmed up was: "I don't need a girlfriend or anything, I've got Beitar Jerusalem." (It sounds better in Hebrew, especially when sung at the top of their lungs.)
Make no mistake, this is a tough crowd. Men took off their shirts revealing the team symbol – a Jewish menorah. They urged the players on with chants that included "War, War, War."
But, overall, they were on their best behaviour Thursday night.
The 34-year-old father of two who sat beside me said proudly that he'd been a supporter since birth. People love them – and hate them – he said, "because it's the most right-wing football team in the country."
This is a team that never has had an Arab on its squad, even though Israel's population is 20 per cent Arab, the makeup of the league is 20 per cent Arab, and every other team in the country's Premier League has Arab players.
Two years ago, Beitar signed two skilled Chechens -- Muslims -- to play for the team, and fans became incensed, burning down part of the club's practice facility.
The Chechens were traded to another team. La Familia had its way.
"This is Beitar," the man beside me said, motioning to the stands full of Jewish Israelis. "No Arabs here." It is an intriguing mix of raw emotion.
Beitar was a military-oriented youth movement in the 1930s and 40s that began in Eastern Europe, fought the Nazis and moved to mandate Palestine where they fought the local Arabs until Israel's independence in 1948.
The Beitar fans (98 per cent male and 90 per cent between the ages of 16 and 24) think they're carrying on the fight.