Wednesday December 18, 2019

I've Been Thinking:

On Wednesday Israeli Basketball team Hapoel Yerushalim played in Athens against AEK Athens. It was part of a GameDay 9 Match.

400 Hapoel fans accompanied their team to cheer them on. The Israelis were met by and totally surrounded by security. The Israelis were not welcome in Athens.

The Athens fans burned the Israeli flag. They held up Hamas flags and pictures of convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti, now serving time in sn Israeli prison. The Israeli's were stunned.

On one twitter post an Israeli can be heard saying how painful it was to watch her country's flag burn, but there was nothing that could be done.

At one point a large group of Athens fans converged on Israelis, chanting and shouting. Security stepped up and the crowd retreated.

The Israeli team made an appeal to the International Basketball Federation arguing that this kind of behavior does not belong in sports. Several investigations have begun. I hope that the Athens fans who behaved in this way are disciplined and that these kinds of fans are banned.

Basketball cannot fall victim to the violence and politics of European football and hooliganism.

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