Rifaat Turk

Rifaat Turk
Rifaat Turk at the funeral of Eli Mohar in 2006
Personnel
birthday	September 16, 1954
place of birth	Jaffa ,  Israel
position	midfield
Juniors
Years	station
1970-1972	Hapoel Tel Aviv
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1972-1984	Hapoel Tel Aviv
1983	Hapoel Ramat Gan
1984-1986	Hapoel Jerusalem
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1976-1986	Israel	34 (3)
1 Only league games are given.

Rifaat Turk ( Arabic رفعت ترك, Hebrew רפעת טורק, Born September 16, 1954 in Tel Aviv-Jaffa ) is a former Israeli soccer player , soccer coach and current local politician . Turk was the first Arab on the Israeli national football team and the first Arab to represent Israel at the Olympics .

life and career

Soccer

Rifaat was born the son of a fisherman in the predominantly Arab city of Jaffa, which four years earlier had been united with Tel Aviv to form one municipality . At the age of 16 he was discovered by talent scouts from the top Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv and made his debut in the professional team two years later at the age of 18. In 1976 he took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal with an Israeli selection . In his first years as a professional, Turk was massively attacked by opposing fans and players because of his Arab origins, but he was able to build on the solidarity of his club and his teammates and gained respect through strong performances.

In the following years, the midfielder, also known as Jimmy the rocket because of his hard shot , became one of the country's most respected professionals and was named Israel's Footballer of the Year in 1980. In 1981 he won the Israeli championship with Hapoel. After a total of twelve years at Hapoel, Turk played after a short stopover in Ramat Gan for two years at Hapoel Jerusalem before ending his active career in 1987. He then worked as a coach for various youth and professional teams, including Hapoel Taibe , the first Arab club in the highest Israeli league. To this day, Turk is closely linked to his hometown club Hapoel Tel Aviv. His son Hanes plays, like he once did, in the youth area of ​​the club.

politics

As a footballer, Turk had already begun to work for a more harmonious coexistence of Jews and Arabs in Israel and was a sharp critic of xenophobic stadium chants. In the 1990s he became a member of the left-wing Meretz party (today Meretz-Jachad ) and successfully ran for various municipal offices. In 2003 he was elected Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv . Turk is particularly committed to youth work. For many Arab-Israeli children he is still a figure of integration today.

In a 2005 survey by the Israeli news portal Ynetnews , which looked for the 200 most important people in Israeli history , Turk was ranked 113th.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jimmy, the rocket .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. juedische-allgemeine.de  
2. ^ Rifat Turk: Scoring for Arab Israelis
3. ↑ הישראלי מספר 1: יצחק רבין