The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza has been dominating world news as of late, and the tension has now found its way to the basketball court.
A EuroCup game between Israel’s Bnei Hasharon club and Turk Telekom of Turkey was disrupted yesterday in Ankara when protesters began shouting death threats at the Israeli players. However, only a handful of the team’s players are from Israel. The team has five players from the United States, including former University of Colorado star Richard Roby.
The game never made it to tip-off, and the details of the scene are frightening.
HAARETZ reports that preparations by the Turkish police were the only thing preventing the Bnei HaSharon’s players from being physically attacked, and perhaps even killed:
It would seem that watching a EuroCup game was the last thing spectators who came to the stadium had on their minds. They were more focused on shouting “death to the Jews” and waving Palestinian flags.
If it weren’t for the advanced preparations by the Turkish police, which prevented the masses from attacking the Israeli players a few seconds before the opening whistle, a serious disaster might have transpired.
The game’s officials suspended the game and ordered the players off the court. Fortunately, the Turkish police was present to escort the team away. Bnei Hasharon GM Zeev Baram said that crowd members were throwing shoes and water bottles at his players. Baram noted that he thought something was amiss when a large group of people who appeared not to be basketball fans were gathering in the arena:
“A moment before jump ball, somebody in the stands whistled, and then the 2,500-3,000 people who were in the stands suddenly stormed toward the floor,” he explained. “The large police force simply couldn’t stop the masses. I yelled immediately to the players to run to the locker room. It’s lucky we made it to the locker room without anyone getting hurt.”
Baram said that his American players were particularly scared, as they are not used to such tensions spilling over into the sports world.
It should be noted that Turkey is known for its positive ties with Israel and for being a moderate secular Muslim nation, so this kind of display is out of the ordinary given the setting.
The craziest part of all of this? Bnei Hasharon may actually be charged with a loss!
Ironically, officials from ULEB, which oversees the EuroCup, are considering whether to slap Bnei Hasharon with a technical loss. The official line is that the team refused to play even after the crowd was kicked out of the hall.
“We’re not thinking about that at all,” Eldad Aconis told Haaretz after the team returned to its hotel. “We want to do now is safely return to Israel. People who weren’t here can’t understand what went on here. A technical loss is a scandalous decision, and I hope if it is made it will be reversed.”
How dare you want to get out of there and go home, team that almost got assaulted by angry extremists! There’s basketball to be played!
8:30 pm on January 7th, 2009
Nice to see European basketball making the same inroads to fan violence like European soccer.
8:31 pm on January 7th, 2009
Why are there Muslim extremists at the game in the first place? Isn't basketball too much of an "infidel Western sport"?
9:02 pm on January 7th, 2009
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for over 60 years now. Stunts like this really aren't that surprising, although they're still just as frightening.
11:02 pm on January 7th, 2009
Same stuff happens in Israel too. Ask Khalid el-Amin about his experience over there? Far from pleasant.
11:20 pm on January 7th, 2009
What do basketball players have to do with war and conflict? Israel is surrounded by terrorist nations that have stated they want to wipe Israel off the map. When will the Arabs learn to stop hating and begin to live in peace?
2:48 am on January 8th, 2009
I love the people who say Turkey is a "secular" state. Right, that explains all those mosques in Istanbul.
7:58 am on January 8th, 2009
Tim P, There are also churches in Istanbul, including a large one in Taksim Square in the heart of the city. Having mosques or churches have nothing to do with secularism, however. There are churches and mosques here in the US, but we're still a secular state as well.
smart guy, I don't know if you meant to imply this, but Turks are not Arabs.
Having ties to Turkey, I believe that you had some nut-job group in Turkey (think their version of the KKK) who bought up tickets and were there to make a show. I hope the police made plenty of arrests.
10:04 am on January 8th, 2009
@Brratt
I believe you're talking of the PKK/KGK; militant group looking to absolve a large chunk of land in that area for the Kurds.
10:21 am on January 8th, 2009
It amuses me greatly that these extremists are going all out on Israeli basketball players because Israel has invaded Gaza. Now if only they would harass anyone from Hamas first, you know, for the rocket attacks and terrorist bombings and such that happen in Israel every day. Maybe, just maybe they could understand that they really are idiots that have no involvement in any of it and should protest something closer to home. Such as poverty.
1:00 pm on January 8th, 2009
How much of a stupid douche do you have to be to scream death threats at an athlete because you don't like their country?
What's pathetic is that it's typical of the mainstream Muslim mentality.
1:58 pm on January 8th, 2009
These aren't extremeists - these people who are sick and tired of Israel bombing women and children. This should happen to all Israelis, maybe then they will learn to live in peace.
5:32 pm on January 8th, 2009
Dont expect anything more from the dirty turks, they have always been that way, just ask anyone whos ever dealt with a turk.
6:07 pm on January 8th, 2009
Jalon - with the manipulative Hamas hiding like cowards and using 'women and children' as human shields - who do you expect Israel to bomb? When they fire rockets from schools while there are children crowded in the building below, who do you expect them to bomb? When they take their guerilla warfare into densely populated urban areas - again, just who do you think Israel will bomb? Funny how Israel provides bomb shelters and tries to protect it's citizens from terrorist attacks, but Hamas uses "it's" citizenry as sacrifices for international sympathy votes (which you apparently have bought whole-heartedly into, thereby proving their tactics unfortunately work all too well). Hamas' sworn objective is the annihilation of Israel. There will be no peace until they are eradicated. How come so few people can understand this?
7:23 am on January 9th, 2009
Cristian,
When you make blatantly prejudiced statements like that, it's only a reflection upon yourself and who you are.
Pathetic.
2:53 pm on January 11th, 2009
Brrat
only ask the Armenian what they think about turks