The Austrian Consul General in Tel Aviv has been instructed to discuss with the Israeli Foreign Ministry several incidents involving Revisionist youth and the Austrian Kapfenberg soccer team, which is currently touring Israel.
When the team arrived in Israel, members of the Herut and Betauv he latter a Revisionist youth organization, distributed leaflets asking Israeli team to refuse to play with the Austrians and accusing them of being Nazis. Yesterday, after the unsuccessful attempt to burn the goal posts, isolated youths tried several times to interfere with the game, but were arrested by police before they could get on the field. The game, between Kapfenberg and the Petach Tikyah Hapoel eleven, ended in a 2-2 tie.”
The protest to Jerusalem followed a campaign in the press here, including even a Socialist newspaper, which insisted that the incidents were proof of unfriendly feelings among the Israelis. A statement by the Austrian Chancellery denied this and pointed out that the incidents were of a minor nature and that the fact that an Austrian team had been invited to Israel at all proved that the Israelis were not prejudiced against the Austrians.
The Israel Consul General here stated today that the youths responsible for the incidents were neither numerically nor politically important. A representative of the management of the Kapfenberg team issued a statement to the effect that Israel authorities are doing everything possible to prevent repetition of such incidents and that the Israel authorities were obviously trying to assure that the incidents do not hurt sports relations between the two nations.
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