No space is free from politics–or harassment–thanks to anti-Israel groups’ tactics
There was some seriously unsportsman-like behavior at the Auckland Tennis Center in New Zealand yesterday, but it didn’t come from any of the players. Taking a page from the “pro-Palestinian activists” who tried to turn attending an exhibit of the Dead Sea scrolls into a political referendum, activists are now harassing Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe’er:
A small group of people carried placards and chanted against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians outside the Auckland Tennis Centre in New Zealand before Pe’er took to court four and defeated Slovenia’s Polona Hercog 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the ASB Classic.
Shahar Pe'er is just the latest Israeli to face harassment.
Pe’er, who’s never been one to take political stands, handled it like a pro:
“It’s a shame that somebody thinks it’s my fault that there are problems in the world,” she told reporters. “For me, the most important thing was that even though I was hearing those things, which were not nice, I still won.”
This bit of outrageousness has unfortunately become common. As SFI’s sagacious friend Evelyn Gordon wrote last month, “Such intimidation has become common at sporting events, just as it has at college campuses, public lectures and many other venues.”
Just a few examples:
* Last January, an Israeli basketball team fled the court in panic during a EuroCup match in Ankara, Turkey, after thousands of Turkish fans waving Palestinian flags shouted “death to the Jews,” threw shoes and water battles, and ultimately stormed the court. (Adding insult to injury, EuroCup’s governing body then slapped Israel with a technical loss because the frightened players refused to take the court again.)
* Last March in Malmo, Sweden,organizers barred spectators entirely from Israel’s Davis Cup tennis match against Sweden, owing to fear of pro-Palestinian protesters who had recently pelted a pro-Israel demonstration with bottles, eggs, and fireworks.
* In December, the Scottish Trade Unions Congress — one of many European unions that have voted to boycott Israel — urged basketball fans to wave Palestinian flags during a Glasgow match…
Read More » Comments (0) »Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 2:01 PM | Stand For Israel
Universal harassment continues…
More stupidity this week thanks to Europe’s universal jurisdiction laws and the willingness of anti-Israel forces to use them dishonorably for political gain: A delegation of senior IDF officers had to cancel a planned visit to the UK to avoid being arrested upon landing.
The delegation included four officers with ranks of major to colonel who had been invited by the British Army. Alas, the Brits shame-facedly told their Israeli counterparts that they couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t be arrested.
Israeli officials said that, oddly enough, consistently trying to arrest Israeli officials will ”make it difficult for the two countries to maintain a normal relationship.”
That’s sort of the point, of course. And the Europeans, as of yet, aren’t really standing up to the clowns making a mockery of what actual war crimes are.
Comments (0) »Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 3:09 PM | Stand For Israel
Real “war criminals” use human shields. (Hint: We’re not referring to Israel)
Critics of Israel poo-poo allegations that Israel’s enemies use human shields, and the UN doesn’t condemn it.
There’s a lack of proof, they say. Um, just try watching CNN. (h/t Elder of Ziyon)
Comments (0) »Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 1:30 PM | Stand For Israel
The heroine of Palestine’s heroines? Really?
Murderess-Hero Dalal Mughrabi
Who someone admires is revealing. After all, what parent wouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief knowing that his daughter’s heroine was Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin (depending on one’s political preferences), rather than the all-too-common Paris Hilton or Kardashian sisters? So, too, do a society’s heroes reveal much about where its priorities and values lay.
Hence the tragedy of the veneration of Dalal Mughrabi, one of the more twisted proto-feminists in history’s annals. Mughrabi was the leader of what became known as “the Coastal Road Massacre,” a 1978 terrorist attack in which 38 civilians–among them 13 children–were murdered.
Mughrabi, then around 20, headed a group of 12 terrorists who floated on rubber dinghies from Lebanon and landed on Israeli beaches early on the Sabbath morning of March 11, 1978. The group’s ultimate intentions, according to news reports at the time, was to get to Tel Aviv, where they’d take tourists and foreign ambassadors hostage in order to force the release of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel.
The charred remains of the bus in which dozens were immolated stands at a memorial in Holon, Israel.
Things didn’t go quite as planned: They murdered an American on the beach, hijacked a cab (killing its passengers), and hijacked two buses driving on Highway 2, the main road that runs along the coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa. News reports described Ms. Mughrabi’s work:
The bus continued driving south on the Coastal Road (Highway 2) while the terrorists fired and threw grenades at passing cars, shot passengers and dumped at least one body out of the bus. At one point, they hijacked another bus and forced the passengers from the first bus to board it. An explosion caused either by an exploding fuel tank or a grenade set the bus on fire, killing 38 civilians, 13 of them children. 71 Israelis were wounded.
The passengers had been burned alive. Mughrabi and several of the other…
Read More » Comments (6) »Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 2:00 PM | Stand For Israel
No “happy new year” for Israelis tonight
These New Year's fireworks are definitely *not* in Jerusalem.
No, no. That’s not what we mean.
With God’s help (and yours), all of Israel will have a peaceful and happy 2010, but we’re referring to the world-wide “holiday” that begins tonight at midnight — New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. It may seem strange but Israelis don’t really celebrate it.
The first year SFI lived in Israel, I found myself sitting on a Jerusalem bus one Thursday night. I absent-mindedly looked down at my watch and took in the number of the date: “31.” There were only a handful of other passengers and all seemed simply as pre-occupied as I was with getting home already.
Ten p.m. on December 31 in Jerusalem — and nothin’. No festivities, just another night. (Never one to enjoy enforced-party-rules, I felt rather a sense of liberation at it.)
Not “our” New Year
The main reason that Israelis don’t celebrate Jan. 1 is because it’s not our new year. The Jewish calendar’s new year begins on Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei (which usually falls in September or October). So January 1 may be the beginning of lu’azi year(secular calendar year), but our year started a few months ago.
Hard to see but the colored flowers are wishing Israelis a happy Passover.
Israel’s national calendar follows the Biblical Jewish calendar: Newspapers print both the Jewish and secular dates, and the annual cycle follows Jewish holidays: So bottles of Coke don’t say “Happy Holidays” in December, but rather wish Israelis a “Happy new year” in the fall and a “Happy Passover” in the spring. Days of the week correspond to the Sabbath: Sunday is, literally, “the first day (from the Sabbath)”; Wednesday “the fourth day (from the Sabbath)”; and Saturday is–you guessed it–”the Sabbath.”
This is not to say that the Jewish state isn’t fully compliant with the calendar the rest of the world uses: Jewish dates are…
Read More » Comments (4) »Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 5:48 PM | Stand For Israel
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