Beitar Jerusalem

British Mandate

Beitar Jerusalem was founded in 1936 by Shmuel Kirschstein and David Horn as a youth team. The first games were held against Armenian and Arab teams in Jerusalem, though Hapoel Jerusalem boycotted for political reasons.

In 1942, a match was held at Tel Aviv's Maccabiah Stadium between Beitar and the Islamic Sports Club of Haifa. Beitar won 5–1. At the end of 1943 and early 1944, Beitar played several games against the club from Katamon, Al-Dajani, the city's leading Arab team.

15 April 1944: Beitar Jerusalem 1–1 Plebis

22 April 1944: Beitar Jerusalem 2–2 Plebis

20 May 1944: Beitar Jerusalem 1–3 Allwain

Later, Beitar Jerusalem qualified for the final, which was to be held against the team of the "Paymasters" of the British mandate. The fans of rival Hapoel Jerusalem disrupted the game, and the "Jerusalem Cup remained in the hands of the politicians in Tel Aviv."

On 19 October 1944, several club players were among 251 persons who were deported to Eritrea, Kenya, and Sudan by the British Mandate authorities. Among the deportees were David Horn and Rabinovich and some members of Beitar Jerusalem's "First team of 1936." A Beitar Jerusalem team was set up in Gilgil, where many deportees played in city-of-origin-based teams. A plan was made to dig a tunnel from the centre of a football pitch in the detention camp in Kenya. Two of the deportees were murdered by Sudanese guards for an alleged "escape attempt". Six succeeded in reaching Europe. All living deportees reached Israel in July 1948.

When a joint team of Beitar Jerusalem and Beitar Tel Aviv visited Lebanon and Syria, they played against Homenetmen, an Armenian team, which ended in 0–0, and the French Army team, in which Beitar lost 2–5. Both games were held in Beirut. Another game, planned in Aleppo, was cancelled because of a diplomatic incident as Arab delegates in the hotel protested seeing an "Eretz Yisrael" flag, now the Israeli flag, in an Arab country. The British ambassador intervened, suggesting that the Union Jack be raised instead of the "Eretz Yisrael" flag, but the head of delegation Hayyim Levin opposed. Due to the impasse, the game was canceled. Simon Alfasi, Shimon Stern, Yisrael Yehezqel, and goalkeeper Yosef Meyuhas were the Beitar Jerusalem players on the trip.

In 1946, Beitar Jerusalem qualified for the 2nd round of the Cup Games against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The scores were a 3–3 and a loss 3–2 in game 2. Simon Alfasi scored all five goals for the club, three in the first and two in the second.

On 8 August 1947, all Beitar clubs were banned by the British mandate authorities. The club name was changed to "Nordiah Jerusalem" before a local league was set up in the Jerusalem district in November 1947. On 15 November 1947, Beitar as "Nordiah Jerusalem" won the first derby, 3–1 over Hapoel Jerusalem, and on 29 November 1947, a second win was achieved, 8–1 over Degel Zion when one player Simon Alfasi scored six goals in a game, the record for any Beitar Jerusalem's player that stands until today. The club led the league on 29 November 1947, on the same evening when UN GA Resolution 181 was proclaimed, and on 30 November 1947, the games were stopped abruptly: on that day, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War broke out. During the war, Beitar Jerusalem player Asher Benjamin was killed by the British when he entered a British camp in Jerusalem.

State of Israel

After independence in 1948, Beitar, again by its original name, played since the 1949–50 season in a "Special League" of "Jerusalem's district", ending in 5th place while achieving a win of 8–0 over Hapoel Ramla on 17 December 1949, the highest league win of Beitar Jerusalem in any league the club has not played. In the 1951–52 season, the club integrated into Liga Bet southern part, then the second tier. In 1953–54 the club won the southern division of Liga Bet, and were promoted to the top league, which had just been renamed Liga Leumit. In their first season in the top flight, they finished 11th out of 14, and were forced to participate in promotion/relegation play-offs. Although they were the highest-placed club to take part in the play-offs, they finished at the bottom of the group, Beitar were relegated back to the second league, now renamed Liga Alef. In 1957–58 they won Liga Alef, but were not promoted, as there was no promotion or relegation that year.

They won Liga Alef again in 1966–68 (a two-year season) and were promoted back to Liga Leumit. That was the best league season ever for Beitar Jerusalem, although it was winning the 2nd division "only". 104 points out of a possible 120, for a season of 60 matches, when two points were given for winning a match. The club had 32 an undefeated streak with a sequence of 19 wins starting with the 42nd match to the 60th match inclusive, the record of Beitar Jerusalem in any league, scoring 161 league goals. 225,000 spectators saw the club's matches in that season. The prize that the club management gave to the players was a trip to the United States of America.

After finishing thirteenth in 1968–69, Beitar finished fifth in 1969–70, their best performance to date.