Screen log

Maccabi Kiryat Gat astonishes the champion Maccabi Haifa, a horrific attack in Jerusalem and a combined 10 minutes that left millions of spectators speechless.

How Yoram Arbel reacted in real time, the feelings in the car and the man behind the "split screen".

20 years to one of the most shaky moments in the history of sports broadcasting in Israel

Tomer Yitzhak

02/03/2022

Wednesday, 02 March 2022, 11:30

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"We will now turn part of the screen in favor of the football game that we actually broke in this broadcast into half. We will continue to broadcast the game as well."

This pair of sentences by Oded Ben-Ami accompanied the moment that left millions of Israelis shocked and speechless.

Some watched it live, others learned about it during the public outcry that followed.

This happened on March 2, 2002, when a report from the scene of the attack in the Beit Israel neighborhood of Jerusalem was screened and played on two-thirds of the screen, and on the right, without a voice, the live broadcast of the football game between Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Kiryat Gat continued.

20 years later, we set out on a journey following the "split screen".

That evening when a heavy disaster in the heart of the Israeli capital, an extraordinary sporting sensation and a desire to change media behavior patterns - together created one of the most shaky and unforgettable moments that Israeli television has ever known.

A moment that provoked a huge public outcry.

The split screen (Photo: Screenshot,.)

Those Saturday nights started with net football, including history even before the opening kick.

This was the first ever broadcast of Maccabi Kiryat Gat in the senior league.

The modest team from the south, in the only season in its history in the Premier League, was then ranked in last place and encrypted in Kiryat Eliezer to be hosted by the proud champion Maccabi Haifa.

The Greens were at the top of the table and for them it was the last test of tools ahead of the season game against Hapoel Tel Aviv a week later.

Given the level differences and even greater economic disparities, the question was just how many.

The betting board also agreed and the game was removed from the weekly toto form.

After 31 minutes, the scoreboard in Kiryat Eliezer showed 0: 3.

Only to win Kiryat Gat.

The guest stunned with a free kick from 40 meters by Ofer Alkobi, a sweeping break by Mickey Atia and another goal by Nir Hazot, and the champion who was unbeaten at home (11 wins and a draw) found herself on the boards.

Hazot completed a pair in the second half and the eight Kiryat Gat fans who made their way to Haifa on Purim celebrated a resounding 0: 4, in one of the most shocking surprises in the history of the league.

But the focus has shifted even earlier to a completely different focus.

One of the most shocking surprises of all time.

Maariv Sports Gate The Morning After (Photo: Maariv Archive)

Moni Brosh, CEO of Betar Jerusalem, with chairman Eli Ohana (Photo: Berni Ardov) "Yoram Arbel, who broadcast the game, told me on the internal network: 'Moni, someone will go home today, what is this thing?'

I explained to him that this was a decision from above and no one was going home. "

In the middle of the game, a news flash burst, following a report of an attack in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Beit Israel in Jerusalem.

This is a reality that is a bit difficult to grasp for young football fans: the Premier League is broadcast live on a commercial channel (in recent years these channels only broadcast football during the World Cup or Euro), in days of relentless terror across the country.

But then, in the midst of the second intifada and at the beginning of a tragedy-filled month that later turned out to be "Black March" with over 30 attacks (including: Cafe Moment, Park Hotel in Netanya and Matzah Restaurant in Haifa), interrupting a broadcast in such circumstances was a routine event.

Only here something else happened.

One-time.

With the opening of the second half, around 20:00, it was decided by the "Teled" franchise that aired that day on Channel 2, to change television world orders.

"CEO Uzi Peled comes up to me and says: 'Moni, I want to make a split screen,'" recalls Moni Brosh, currently CEO of Betar Jerusalem and then editor of sports broadcasts and also a spokesman for Tel-Aviv. "I asked in amazement: What?

split screen?

And he answered: 'Yes'.

The vice president and the main producer also tried and failed to convince him. Then it happened

.

Suddenly we saw the split screen in the air: two-thirds attack, one-third football.

Yoram Arbel, who broadcast the game, told me on the internal network: 'Moni, someone will go home today, what is this thing?'.

I explained to him that it was a decision from above and no one was going home.

We were on the air for a few minutes and then the broadcast was cut short. "

Days of incessant terror.

The scene of the attack in Jerusalem on March 2, 2002 (Photo: Flash 90, Nati Shochat)

Uzi Peled (Photo: Nir Landau, Walla!) "The days after the split screen were turbulent, the public outrage was great and there were condemnations and threats of fines, but the storm subsided and they realized I was right."

For 10 minutes, Channel 2 viewers will be exposed to the surrealistic spectacle: on one side, images from the scene of the attack and in a smaller part of the screen, without the broadcast team, a Premier League game with perhaps the greatest surprise of all time.

The sports channel, which produced the football transmitters and then owned a single channel, still offered to transfer the game to it, but Teled refused and at the end of the short experiment the split was stopped and the screen was fully devoted to news updates.

The after-market arrived the next day, after the dimensions of the disaster in the horrific attack became clear (10 dead, including six children, and about 60 injured) and the country shook and erupted following the split screen.

The main contention was that economic and commercial considerations outweighed national responsibility and the criticisms were sharp.

The event was defined as a low point for Channel 2 in general and for Tel-Aviv in particular.

"Even that evening in the car we knew there would be a mess," Brosh describes.

"On Sunday I come to the office and see Uzi Peled completely. The man I learned from him and I owe him a lot. He wanted to say that despite the attacks, business should be broadcast as usual. At that time, broadcasts were expropriated in favor of news whenever there were terrorist attacks." Compensation, and these are losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. But in the days after that there was a troll. Articles, public outrage, everyone just talked about it. Now you get out of it as a spokesperson. People will say: "The way he conveyed the message was very extreme, but in the end this procedure took root. He was right."

Uzi Peled himself explains today, 20 years later, the drastic step he took as CEO: "It was my decision and the desire was to shock.

The policy was that there were no advertisements on news broadcasts during terrorist attacks, and it turned out that many of the attacks were during the days of Tel-Aviv.

It cannot be that a commercial channel that exists from advertisements will lose huge sums every day.

The days after the split screen were stormy, the public outrage was great and there were condemnations and threats of fines, but the storm subsided and they realized I was right.

It cannot be that terrorists will set the agenda here.

After I explained the story, the other authority also changed the policy and stopped the practice of canceling advertisements.

The shock contributed to achieving the goal. "

The high point in the history of Maccabi Kiryat Gat.

Game report in the Maariv sports section (Photo: Maariv Archive)

The preoccupation with the unprecedented television moment robbed much of the spotlight that Kiryat Gat deserved thanks to the glorious victory.

A team that scratched shekel for shekel to survive and brought Gili Landau to last place in the second division with two points in the six opening rounds without dreaming at all that would lead her to the Premier League heroically (including a goal from Yossi Gordana's corner in the 81st minute), experienced The climactic moment in her annals and could not really mark it properly.

The severe attacks led to the postponement of the festivities in the city by several days, and they were restrained nonetheless.

The euphoria from the amazing victory over the champion (which did not lose again later) further pushed Kiryat Gat to significantly improve its balance sheet and come close to two points from survival, but it declined at the end of that season and later plunged and even reached dissolution in 2020.

Symbolically, her fate was similar to that of Tel-Aviv, which was Channel 2's leading franchisee in the 1990s, but lost the tender to operate it in 2005 and evaporated from the television landscape.

"There were other reasons and I was no longer there, but it could be that the split-screen event also had an impact on the auction results," Peled admits.

"I do not deny it."

• sport

• Israeli soccer

• Super League

Tags

• Maccabi Haifa

• Maccabi Kiryat Gat

• Tled