#israeli basketball players

[israelihunks]

[feet2eat]

[vicholas]

July 26, 2024

(...)With the Paris Games starting on July 26, Israel's killing of athletes and players in Gaza, along with its destruction of the enclave's sports facilities, has triggered mounting demands to disqualify Israel from the tournament as activists and spectators question the legitimacy of its participation.

Palestinian writers and sports commentators contend that Israel's Gaza onslaught, which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, also represents an attempt to eliminate sports and athletic achievement.

"It's a genocide ... ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, and the attacks on athletes and sports in particular in the Gaza Strip are all very systematic attacks to obliterate and erase sports in the territory," Abubaker Abed, a Gaza-based sports journalist told Anadolu.

Israel's intentions go further than eliminating Gaza's current athletic capacity, according to writer and lecturer Abdaljawad Omar, who held that it was part of a concerted effort by Tel Aviv to undermine Palestinians' achievements in all areas, with sports being no exception.

"Israel systemically seeks to ensure that Palestinian accomplishments and potential in all realms remain dampened and always dwarfed by its own achievements.

"This applies to political, intellectual, economic, and literary fields, where historically, many talented and highly accomplished Palestinians have been targeted. Sports is no exception in this sense," he explained.  

The situation is "extremely worse" for athletes in Gaza, according to football journalist Abed, adding that many players have been killed in the territory.

According to the Palestinian Olympic Committee and Palestine Football Association, about 400 athletes have been killed since Oct. 7, with the football association noting that the war has claimed 245 players in that sport alone, including 69 children and 176 young men.

Some 33 scouts and 70 members of sports unions have also been killed.

According to the association, Israeli forces have also detained players, including 12 in the occupied West Bank.

Israel's attacks have killed several Olympians as well. Sixty-nine have been killed during Israel's ongoing assault, says the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, launched in 2004.  

Besides athletes, sports facilities also have not been spared. Dozens, including gyms, training halls, fields, and stadiums, have been damaged or destroyed since Oct. 7.

A total of 42 facilities have been leveled in Gaza, while seven were destroyed in the West Bank, says the Palestinian Football Association.

Abed pointed out how Israel has destroyed football schools, including the Al-Wahda Academy and the Champions Academy, which "was one of the most promising football projects" in Gaza.

He pointed out how Israel has eradicated talent in football, the most popular sport among Gaza's residents, leaving only one stadium, the Al-Dorra stadium, intact out of the enclave's 10.

Israeli forces have been seizing stadiums in Gaza and turning them into detention centers.

Human rights monitor Euro-Med highlights that the Israeli army turned the Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City into a detention center "to hold and humiliate hundreds of Palestinians, including children, shown naked and stripped of their clothes in footage published by the Israeli media in December 2023."

A report by the group published in May indicates that facilities bulldozed and destroyed include "300 five-a-side courts, 22 swimming courts, 12 covered sports halls for basketball, volleyball, and handball, and six tennis stadiums.

"Twenty-eight sports and fitness centers have been targeted, damaged, and destroyed."  

Israel's offensive has also caused the death of prominent players in Gaza.

This includes Palestine's first-ever Olympian and flagbearer, Majed Abu Maraheel, who died due to kidney failure in a refugee camp in June.

The 61-year-old Olympic distance runner died as Israel's ongoing blockade of humanitarian assistance left many, including Maraheel, lacking medical treatment and facilities.

Maraheel had competed in the men's 10,000-meter race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

In January, the Palestinian Olympic football team's coach Hani Al-Mossader was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The same month, Nagham Abu Samra, a karate champion who was set to participate in the Paris Olympics, died in a hospital in Egypt after succumbing to her injuries.

She had been severely wounded by an Israeli attack that left her with head injuries and led to the amputation of one of her legs.

(...)With hours left until the Paris 2024 Games' opening ceremony, experts are still questioning the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to keep Israel in the tournament.

"Athletes, whether footballers ... whatever the sport is, they don't belong to political factions ... they are targeted and are illegitimate targets for Israeli forces, and this is absolutely prohibited by all international laws and all FIFA regulations," says Abed.

He argued that Israel's actions show that it lacks the Olympic values of peace, tolerance, forgiveness, love, and sportsmanship.

"So, how could Israel even participate in the Olympics?" he asked.

Russia, meanwhile, has been banned from Olympic and FIFA tournaments after it launched its war on Ukraine in 2022, noted Abed, who maintained that Moscow's actions in that conflict were mild compared to the devastation Israel has caused in Gaza.

This "disgraceful stance," he asserts, revealed the hypocrisy of the IOC, as well as the world governing body for football.

The organizers of this year's Olympics have said their decision to keep Israel in the Games while upholding the ban on Russia and Belarus is due to Moscow's annexation of Ukrainian territory, while Tel Aviv has not formally seized territory in Gaza.

Fadi Quran, senior director at US-based rights group Avaaz, said the Olympics and the IOC's current leadership will be remembered for "turning a blind eye to a country committing what the ICJ ruled is a plausible genocide, and said is apartheid."

He was referring to a preliminary ruling by the International Court of Justice that recognized genocide as a plausible risk in Gaza. Israel stands accused of genocide at the top UN court, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

Quran expects that athletes will protest Israel's presence at the Olympics and fans will boycott events where the Israeli flag is raised.

"Now that the IOC has refused to ban Israel, activists across the world will take action to ensure that the Paris Olympics are branded as the 'Apartheid Olympics,' or 'War Crime Olympics'," he said.

According to Abed, it will take a decade to revive sports in the Gaza Strip.

"The war on Gaza has changed everything. The war on Gaza has killed the dreams of many."

[sayruq]

“Basketball Ireland informed Fiba Europe yesterday that as a direct result of recent comments made by Israeli players and coaching staff – including inflammatory and wholly inaccurate accusations of antisemitism, published on official Israeli federation channels – that our players will not be partaking in traditional pre-match arrangements with our upcoming opponents,” it said. It added that it fully supported the players’ decision to shun courtesies such as the exchanging of gifts and handshakes before and after Thursday’s game. The players also lined up for the national anthem by their bench, rather than centre court. In recent weeks the women’s team had been wrestling with calls to boycott the match, which had been originally slated to be played in Israel in November but was postponed and moved to Riga after Basketball Ireland requested a neutral venue. Several high-profile sporting figures had backed the call, with pressure on the players ramping up after the Israel Basketball Association shared photos from a practice session that included a visit by soldiers from the Israeli Defence Force. Basketball Ireland said late last month that it had raised “strong concerns” about the fixtures with Israel to Fiba Europe and that it had floated the possibility of forfeiting the games. The organisation said it had been told, however, that it could face up to €180,000 in fines and face expulsion from EuroBasket this year and in 2027 for doing so.

[justsomeunsurefancat]

wizard_bisan1 on Instagram

"A few days ago, while I was sitting, I suddenly felt that my lower back and legs hurt a lot and that I was unable to walk. I sat for 24 hours. I got well for a couple of days but now I suffer from pain in the left thigh and lower back, and I have been unable to move for almost a day I cannot bear the pain!"

"Do you know what’s the sad thing? In my previous life, before 7-10 I was a basketball player, and I had regular visits to my sports doctor. I suffered from similar but less pain two years ago, and he told me that I had to rest for a week in addition to a lot of medications and physical therapy because of a problem in the last 4 vertebrae in my back. I needed a lot of healthy eating, exercise, and sun!." "My doctor was injured and arrested in the Indonesian hospital in the north of Gaza Strip, after the Israeli army bombed and invaded the hospital, I don’t have any access to the medicines and physical therapy because of the war." "All what the hospital could do for me, is advising me to take some painkillers, they told me that it is a severe muscle strain due to the cold and because I am sleeping on the ground, until the end of the war, (No one knows when) because it is emergency and they can’t provide the treatment for anyone except the injuries." "And for the painkiller, I didn’t find any of them in the pharmacy.. that’s it, suffering from a pain for days, can’t set, walk, stand or do anything and every day the pain increase. Until when world?? 76 days, until when?"

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Today, two Palestinian terrorists from the city of Hevron had carried out a combined, multi-scene terrorist attack in the city of Ra'anana, killing one woman in her 70's and wounding at least 17 more people. The exact details are still being investigated, but the two terrorists are said to be from one family, 24 and 44 years old, they were denied a work permit in Israel due to terrorist activity in the past, but someone in Ra'anana agreed to hire them illegally. They have both been arrested. The combined method they used was a stabbing and vehicular terrorist attack, they stabbed people, stole the first car, used it to run people over until they crashed it, then they stole a second, then a third car, and continued ramming into people across several streets, before they were stopped. 7 of the injured are reportedly kids, and at least 3 are seriously wounded.

As 136 hostages are still held captive in Gaza, 100 days after Oct 7, we got some data on the treatment of those released roughly 50 days ago: 85 are still under a nurse's supervision, 2 are still hospitalized, 54 are receiving mental health treatment of one type or another, only 18 have returned home, all the rest are still displaced, out of 40 kidnapped kids, 38 were released, but only 21 have returned to the education system, some in their own schools, some in schools improvised for their evacuated community.

In Turkey, an Israeli soccer player, Sagiv Jehezkel, who plays for a local team, scored a goal for it, and raised his hand, revealing to the cameras that on his bandage, he wrote "100 days," drew the Star of David, and added the date of Oct 7. It's obviously a gesture to the Israeli victims of Hamas, the ones murdered during or hurt by the massacre, and the ones still held in captivity.

For this, Sagiv was condemned by the Turkish Football Association, suspended from his team, which annoounced he'd be fired, and then he was ARRESTED and interrogated by Turkish police. For making a humane gesture to honor his country's victims. This is how Sagiv was portrayed in an antisemitic Turkish cartoon, with blood dripping from his lips, evoking the antisemitic image of the Jews who feed on the blood of non-Jewish kids:

Sagiv has been released after an appearance at court, and flown back to Israel immediately, but the head of the Israel Football Association said they're still worried for 2 more Israeli soccer players and 2 Israeli basketballers, who are currently playing for Turkish teams.

Shabak, the Israeli equivalent of the FBI (also sometimes referred to in English as Shin Beit), has confirmed today that Iran is operating social media platforms in Israel, that allow it to harass the families of the Israeli hostages, and Israeli security forces (for example, by exposing their addresses, or sending them flower bouquets with offensive messages). The Islamist regime of Iran is also using these to collect from surveys personal info on Israeli citizens.

I wanna share with you this screenshot from the article, as a reminder that just because someone says online that they're Jewish, or puts "Jewish" in their account name, doesn't make it so.

The chief rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Warren Goldstein, in protest of his country's decision to file a false lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, has changed the customary prayer for the well being of the country. He said: "This government is on the wrong side of history. Its support of Iran and its proxies - Hamas and Hezbollah - encourages a global Jihad,and harms Jews and innocent people worldwide. It's impossible to pray for such a government."

This is 36 years old Osama Abu Assa.

He was a Bedouin, from the village of Tel Sheva. On Oct 7, he was at the Nova music festival, and one of about 367 people who were murdered there. I got to hear several people talking about what a huge heart Osama had, how he was all about giving to others and helping people. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[1-800-fantasy]

While i am not assuming if emily engstler has or has not signed with an israeli team, looking further it does seem as if this could be true.

g’mrice davis is an au pros basketball player who also signed with hapoel. in her instagram bio she has the israel flag next to a phrase “professional athlete”.

other players that signed with hapoel are real accounts that are tagged that are followed by other basketball players. one player alyssa baron is followed by emma cannon who is former #32 on the las vegas aces.

Sadly the official Israel Women’s Basketball Team, who is followed by the Official Indiana Fever and the Official Connecticut Sun, has posted the post of Emily Engslter and her signing with them. UPDATE: I did a quick follow on the Hapoel account and they do in fact follow Emily. I then unfollowed them.

With what i’ve found it does seem as if emily has signed with an israel team. I am for now waiting for her to either confirm or deny these posts.

[lezzballer]

do you know anything about sue bird being a zionist?

Sue Bird is not a Zionist. She played basketball for a KGB spy and mobster named Shabtai Kalmanovich. There were rules in the Russian league preventing teams from stuffing rosters with US players. In order to get around those rules, Shabtai got an Israeli passport for Sue and an Italian passport for Diana. He was very good at this passport game because he had all kinds of connections. He could just pick up the phone, have a 10 minute conversation, and produce a passport out of thin air. Sue and Dee talk about it in this podcast.

The Soviet Union sent Shabtai to Israel to be a spy. He spied on them for years and years. Then he was caught and served a long sentence in an Israeli prison. This was all before his Russian basketball era. His money came from the sweat and labor of Soviet workers. The KGB took public money to set up their own financial portfolios before the Soviet Union dissolved. Most of the businesses they invested in were connected to the mafia. So that's the money he was paying Sue and Diana with until he was killed in a mob war.

[eretzyisrael]

Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) is excusing the New York high school basketball players who hurled anti-Semitic slurs at their Jewish opponents, blaming the incident on unfettered social media use and arguing that the “mistake” the students made should not “follow them.”

Bowman’s comments came through a Thursday statement, which addressed “allegations of anti-Semitic remarks at a high school basketball game.” One week prior, on Jan. 4, a girls high school basketball game in Yonkers—where Bowman lives—was canceled after members of the public Roosevelt High School team shouted “Free Palestine” and other anti-Semitic remarks at their opponents from the Leffell School, a private Jewish institution. For Bowman, the students behind those remarks should not face significant discipline.

“With social media our kids are consuming difficult information without guidance from parents or educators, and we must take this as a learning opportunity and ensure our kids are taught how to critically consume content,” the Democrat wrote. “As an educator, I understand that young people will make mistakes, even very hurtful ones, but they should … not have a mistake follow them throughout their lives.”

Bowman’s defense of the anti-Semitic agitators comes as the Democrat faces criticism over his response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel.

Bowman since the attack has blamed both sides for violence and said that supporting an Israeli ceasefire is “what it actually means to be Jewish.” Bowman has also accused Israel of “genocide,” “mass murder,” and “ethnic cleansing.”

That rhetoric prompted 26 rabbis in Bowman’s district to condemn the congressman and call on Westchester County executive George Latimer to launch a primary campaign against him. Latimer entered the race in early December following a trip to Israel.

[enbyfallenfromthedeadstars]

i'm so late for this, but i wanted to talk about the olympics one more time.

'cause, yeah, it was so good. the opening and closing ceremonies were amazing, and i'm genuinely proud of my country on this one.

BUT it was discriminatory. we saw : - the boxe competitor being harrassed for having a superior amount of testosterone than girls usually have, while no basketball player were ever prejudiced for being too tall. AND the swimming legend Michael Phelbs was considered as a freak with all his natural body mutations that helped him a lot in his field. - the Iranian girl breakdancer who was disqualified for wearing a flag with "free iranian women" written on it on her back. - the Israeli flag-wearer who signed bombs destined to Palestine. - just the presence of Israel (+ North Korea). - the interdiction of hijab in all sports (big up to the woman refugiee runner who accepted the medal while wearing one).

i'm not very interested in sports, so i'm sure i forgot some events, don't hesistate to complete in coms or rebolgs :)

[leaf-in-a-flower-garden]

Irish basketball players were basically forced to play Israel the other day because if they didn't the FIBA ((Basketball association basically)) would've gotten around a 6 figure fine and possible court case for discrimination of something or other ((feel free to fact check that)). 5 players backed out from it as a boycott but the rest of the players went on to travel to Latvia to play the team. One of the Israeli players commented (roughly) that the Irish were antisemitic because they didn't want to play Israel/there was talk of boycotting.

Oh, and let's not forget that the Israeli team was photographed with an IDF 'machine gun' ((not good with guns and am not willing to get it wrong, again, fact check all you want)), another picture being the team posing with a "Stand with Israel" banner.

A good thing is that the Irish team did all they could of not showing their support for Israel by refusing to handshake before(?) the game.

[israelihunks]

[feet2eat]

טל זהביאן - כדורסלן, אליצור רמלה Tal zehavian - Israeli basketball player

[soon-palestine]

head of today's match with Ireland, Israeli women's basketball team poses with the Israeli military as it commits #GazaGenocide.

We salute the five Irish players refusing to play. 💪🏾

[dragoneyes618]

"The plight of the hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 has outraged the Israeli public and the global Jewish diaspora. But where is the rest of the world?

When Boko Haram, the radical militant West African group, abducted hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls, the world spoke up. Countries around the world jumped into action to rescue them. When the Kremlin wrongfully imprisoned American basketball player Brittney Griner, her case became a cause celebre on social media. A wave of emotion swept the US during the Iranian hostage crisis (1979-81). But the silence for the Israeli hostages in Gaza is deafening outside the Jewish community.

In this cruel war - one that Israel did not seek but will win - the plight of the hostages pains each and every Jew throughout the world. If only the rest of mankind, or at least the Western world, viewed their ordeal with the same gravity."

- William Daroff, The Jerusalem Post, April 5 2024

[girlactionfigure]

The 22-year-old MVP of the Palestinian women’s basketball team Mirna Sayeh has made history by being the first female Palestinian player to join the Israeli Premier League.

The Bethlehem native reported, “the bar is much higher in Israel, I really wanted to play here.”

It is incredible to see sports bridging the political divide in Israel.

Glasgow Friends of Israel