[Peace-discuss] When Sports and Gaza Collide.....

[Neil Parthun]

 From Dave Zirin about how the bloodbath in Gaza has impacted sports.

Politics on the pitch: When Gaza and Sports Collide

By Dave Zirin

In January 2008, Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Aboutreika followed a  
goal by raising his shirt to reveal the slogan "Sympathise with  
Gaza". His actions were meant to put a spotlight onto the economic  
embargo that Israel had imposed on Palestinians in Gaza after the  
election of the Hamas government.

Days before the ceasefire halted the carnage in Gaza city this month,  
history repeated as Sevilla (Spain) striker Fredi Kanoute raised his  
shirt after scoring a goal to reveal a shirt that said "Palestine" in  
multiple languages. Kanoute is not an obscure player. In 2007, he was  
named African player of the year, even though he was born in France  
(his family is from Mali).

After earning a £3,000 fine for his political gesture, famed  
Barcelona coach, Jose Guardiola stood up for him, saying: "The fine  
is absolutely excessive. If they always banned these type of things,  
then journalists would not be able to write columns. ... Every war is  
absurd, and too many innocent people have died for us to be fining  
people for things like this."

Welcome to 2009, when Israel's offensive on Gaza, ceasefire or no, is  
finding expression in the sports world. It's a development that  
should give supporters of Israel's actions in Gaza a great deal of  
pause.

Kanoute's actions come on the heels of an event in Ankara, Turkey  
when the Israeli basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, had to flee the  
court from what the Associated Press described as "hundreds of fist- 
pumping, chanting Turkish fans".

Before the game could begin, angry chants of "Israeli killers!" came  
down from the crowd, as Palestinian flags appeared in their hands.  
Then, in a scene that would look familiar to George Bush, off came  
the shoes, and footwear rained down from the stands (the shoes didn't  
hit any players).

A melee then began between 1,500 police officers and Turkish fans, as  
the fans advanced toward the court. Both Hasharon and the Turkish  
team Turk Telecom were hurried to the locker rooms where they  
remained for two hours.

Hasharon forfeited the contest. It says something that Israel found  
reckoning on the basketball court long before any kind of  
International Criminal Court.

According to sports historians, a sporting event hasn't been actually  
stopped in such a manner - with fans turning the stands into a site  
of protest - since 25 July 1981, when South Africa's Springbok rugby  
team had to cancel a game in New Zealand when fans occupied the field  
of play to protest apartheid.

Israel has historically been adamant that any comparisons between the  
Israeli state and South Africa are absolutely false and even  
antisemitic. Jimmy Carter provoked their outrage of course when he  
published his book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.

But this parallel, when related to sports, should not be taken  
lightly. One of the most effective tools against apartheid South  
Africa was the South African Non-Racialised Olympic Committee, which  
attempted to use sports as a way to highlight and broadcast the  
inequities of the South African government. Sports can bring a  
political spotlight and unwanted attention onto a society like few  
other forces in the international community, galvanising, attention,  
passion and, as we saw in Turkey, anger.

Israel hasn't helped itself in this regard by making sports a target  
in the war. On 9 January, the IDF bombed Gaza's Palestine National  
Stadium. The stadium was also the head of the Palestinian Football  
Association. The structure was built in 2005 partially with funds  
from Fifa. The facility will now need to be rebuilt again (in 2006 it  
was also bombed). It was meant to be a symbol of a Palestinian state,  
something that united the West Bank and Gaza as an expression of  
unity. Now it is rubble.

In addition, perhaps fearing a repeat of Ankara, the Israel Football  
Federation is preventing any club matches from being played in  
Palestinian towns. As Jimmy Johnson, who works in Jerusalem for the  
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions told me: "These are not  
Palestinian clubs from the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Gaza, but for  
Palestinian citizens of Israel, sometimes called Arab Israelis, who  
are almost 20% of the population, vote in Israeli elections, etc."

This has gotten little press in the US, but in the soccer-mad Middle  
East, it is altogether insult on top of injury.

Sports, which we are told repeatedly represent a sacredly apolitical  
space, a place to flee the headaches of the real world, has now been  
thrust into the heart of a conflict raw with politics in a way we  
haven't seen in quite some time. Protests against Israeli actions in  
Gaza are sure to continue in sporting events outside the US. But the  
ramifications could very easily be felt inside our borders, as  
political leaders come to the White House and tell the new  
administration tales of sports fans gone wild.

Live hard,
      Neil

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear — fear of  
poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or  
fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for  
bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp  
on vague charges of being a terrorist sympathizer.
[hunter s. thompson, 1937-2005]

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil  
obedience...Our problem is that people are obedient all over the  
world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war,  
and cruelty.
[howard zinn, 1922-]
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