[News] When Sports and Gaza Collide.....

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jan/23/gaza-sport-football-protests


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.

[Dave Zirin is the author of the book: A People's 
History of Sports in the United States. You can 
receive his column Edge of Sports, every week by 
going to dave at edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports at gmail.com]



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