No Justice, No Play? Gaza Anger Overwhelms Hoops Contest

by Dave Zirin, Published on Friday, January 9, 2009 by The Nation (see sig)

We have officially entered uncharted waters. Never before in my years of reporting has a sports team been forced to abandon the field of play due to political protest from fans. Never before have fans become the central actors in turning a sporting event into a political melee.

But Tuesday evening in Ankara, Turkey, the Israeli basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, had to flee the wrath of what the Associated Press described as "hundreds of fist-pumping, chanting Turkish fans." What exploded was yet another protest against Israel's bombardment of Gaza. The shock here is the setting, a sports arena, and the target, a basketball team.

It may be surprising that this came to pass in such a supposedly apolitical environs--a Eurocup game against a team called Turk Telekom--but local officials knew this could happen and took every precaution. Thousands of police officers surrounded the court, and street demonstrations of 4,000 people were already taking place outside the arena. Protesters shouted, "Israeli murderers, get out of Palestine!" and "Allah-u Akhbar!" as the Hasharon team bus entered the arena.

Only 500 fans were even let into the arena and were also subject to intense searches, but it wasn't enough. Police made the mistake of not confiscating the shoes.

Before the game could begin, angry chants of "Israeli killers!" came down from the crowd as smuggled Palestinian flags were unfurled. Then, in a scene that would look familiar to a certain sitting president, off came the shoes as footwear rained down from the stands (the shoes didn't hit any players).

As both teams looked at the crowd, frozen in place, battles began between police officers and Turkish fans, as the fans surged forward to take the court. Both Hasharon and Turk Telecom were rushed off and spent two hours in the locker rooms while the battle for control of the arena raged on.

Hashoran captain Meir Tapiro spoke about the fear and chaos he felt around him to the Jerusalem Post: "The fans raced on to the court and ran towards us like madmen, but the police stopped them. It was really scary."

After ninety minutes all the fans were expelled, arrested or dragged from the arena. The referees attempted to get the teams back onto the court to play before an empty arena, but Bnei Hasharon, after two hours of being prisoners in their locker room, had no desire to play. Referees called it a forfeit, and the Turks were declared winners of the game by the official forfeit score of 20-0.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/09-4

"The Neo-Cons engage anti-Semitism all the time when they trash the "moneylender" George Soros and his secret liberal financing rings that work out of the "coastal elite" cities like San Francisco and New York. When O'Reilly rants about how "Soros funding" and the "media elites" are trying to fight a "War on Christmas" what is O'Reilly's coded message?

Jew hating, under cover of "Israel criticism," is neither the province of liberals or conservatives."

That's funny. That Jew Hating O'Reilly was saying just the other night that anyone who criticizes the attack on Gaza is a Jew Hater. We must be Jew Lovers when we confront the kinds of lies O'Reilly tells, but Jew Haters, like O'Reilly says, when we criticize Israel. I don't envy your frontal lobes, trying to keep all this shit straight.

Seriously, you must learn to think like these leftoids think, and then you will realize that the squalid state of the Palestenian People is not their fault.

Whenever there are people who are not doing well, living in tidy homes with lots of food in the pantry like the Dutch, they are not doing well because they are OPPRESSED.

It can never be their own fault. They do not do well because they are being oppressed by some colonial power.

It can never be their own fault.

These are beautiful words, worthy of humanity's best among us. If I had one wish (not involving money) it would be this: your ass so seriously kicked by reality that you'd be black and blue, repentant and, thus, truly human for the first time in your life. It is but a wish.

I also believe anti-Semites use Israel's action to justify long-held and deeply rooted unhinged conspiracy theories about "Jewish power" that go back centuries. I'm cwazy!

I disagree completely. I believe that Zionists - a tribal-political subset of Judaism, that has a very powerful Lobby group; that somehow ends up in key foreign policy positions for most Presidents; and is disproportionately represented in the media - actually succeeds in lending to stereotypes that have been unfairly targeted at the Jewish religion, as a whole, in the past.

The problem, as I see it, is that Zionists - you included - try to conveniently extend criticism of your political ideology to the religion at whole. When ANYONE (Carter, Walt, Mearsheimer, Amnesty International, UN, Nelson Mandella, etc.) criticizes Israel or the Zionists ideology - the Zionists respond, in kind, with the term "anti-semite". They essentially, cloak themselves behind Judaism, despite the fact Zionism has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Judaism.

It's a rhetorical tactic to shield themselves.

One might also say that evangelicals - a subset of Christianity - have given many people a negative impression of Christianity, as a whole. We all saw the evangelists give Bush a second term, because of shit like gay marriage, and the world responded with "God is delusional"-type books, essentially attacking Christianity as a whole.

Frankly, I believe Christianity, Judaism, Islam, et al are ALL mythologies. And the ideological subsets of each - Zionism included - are down right disturbing. Bunch of nutcase zealots!

Set aside your consuming emotional attachment to Israel and just try to master the most elementary principles of basic logic:

Some supporters of the Israeli attack on Gaza hate Palestinians specifically and Arabs generally -- but not all do. Therefore, to support the Israeli attack on Gaza is not to hate Palestinians and Arabs.

Some opponents of the Israeli attack on Gaza are anti-Semitic and/or oppose the existence of Israel -- but not all are. Therefore, to oppose the Israeli attack on Gaza is not to be anti-Semitic or oppose Israel's existence.

Who is still incapable of grasping logical distinctions like these? I didn't think there was anyone. I see, from your comment, that I was wrong.

It applies to virtually every political dispute: Some opponents of affirmative action are racist but not all are; therefore, to oppose affirmative action is not to be racist. Some opponents of tax cuts are socialists but not all are; therefore, to oppose tax cuts is not to be a socialist. Some opponents of the U.S. invasion of Iraq were Saddam supporters but not all were; therefore, to oppose the war on Iraq is not to be pro-Saddam.

This is third-grade logic. You haven't mastered it yet.

Look! Over there! An anti-semite against the war on Gaza. See! It's about anti-semitism!!!!!