The club was founded in 1936 by Shmuel Kirschstein and David Horn, who chaired the similarly named Betar branch in Jerusalem. Several team members were also part of the outlawed Irgun and Lehi militias closely associated with the right-wing Revisionist Zionism movement. Beitar's fans have become a highly controversial political symbol in Israeli football culture, unofficially aligned with the Revisionist Zionist movement and to the right-wing Likud party. The club, whose fanbase is notorious for its anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism, remain the only one in the Israel Premier League to have never signed an Arab player, although the club already signed four non-Arab Muslim players in the past.