In recent years the Palestinian Association’s football team and the Malmö Jewish football team Hakoah were intentionally separated and matches between the two teams were avoided until recently. This year was an exception when the two teams finally met for a game.
After Ship to Gaza many people, both Palestinian as well as Swedish natives have shown their dissatisfaction of Israel's handling of the activists who were on board the Ship to Gaza flotilla. In Sweden demonstrations against Israel have taken place around the country and local boycotts are currently also taking place. This, even though it has not been proven that Israel has done anything illegal.
Due to the many angry and hateful feelings in Malmö it was therefore not a surprise to find that there were extra guards, police patrols and specially picked arbiters present at the football game for the 6th division between the Palestinian Association and Hakoah last Friday.
Hakoah Malmo has in the past been exposed to a variety of anti-Semitic hate crimes, therefore the Swedish football league has also, as far as they could, tried to prevent politically conflicting teams from meeting for games.
The game ended 4-2 to Hakoah and the game took place without any disturbances. The football association has also decided that politics no longer will be allowed to rule over the games.
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