1y ago

Ireland women's basketball team refuse to shake hands with Israel

www.bbc.com

In an interview on the Israeli Basketball Association's website, Israeli player Dor Saar said before the game: "It's known that they are quite anti-semitic and it's no secret, and maybe that's why a strong game is expected.

"We have to show that we're better than them and win. We talk about it among ourselves. We know they don't love us and we will leave everything on the field always and in this game especially."

Basketball Ireland's statement prior to the start of the game read: "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 anti-Semitism, published on official Israeli Federation channels - that our players will not be partaking in traditional pre-match arrangements with our upcoming opponents.

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1y ago

Ireland women's basketball team refuse to shake hands with Israel

www.bbc.com /sport/basketball/68243979

108 comments

It's known that they are quite anti-semitic
I love it when isrealis reveal that they can't differentiate between their nationality and the religion
- This is your brain on ethnostate
- Israelis must seem like the perfect Russians in Putin's eyes.
  
  That may be more right than you think since Putin had long had a stance of 'get the fuck out of my country if you don't like me' and Israel was and important destination for those who complied.
  About 15% of Israel citizens seem to be russian speaking, because of emigration from the USSR and later Russia, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Israel
- oh yeah, that happens a LOT.
- The 3 D's are a useful tool to tell apart antisemitism and valid criticism.
- Treating people badly because they happen to be from Israel isn't political commentary.
  It's antisemitism, plain and simple.
  
  You're doing it right now too! Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews not Israelis. The reason why these players did not want to shake hands with the Israeli team is not because they are Jews, but because they are Israeli. Yes they are refusing to shake hands with them because they are from Israel but its not because they are Jewish. It's because their country (Israel) is comiting genocide. They would not shake hands with any country that does this
  
  It's anti nationalist, your equation of isreali = semites is actually the bigoted statement.
  
  The same behaviour was shown towards Russian athletes with regards to the invasion of Ukraine. Judging by your logic that would be, idk, anti-orthodox? Russophobic? It's symbolic and has nothing to do with the their opinion of the people they are competing against. It's not antisemitism, plain and simple.
  
  If you'd read the article you'd know the Israeli team called them anti-semites first.
  
  So what was it when the US boycotted the 1980 Olympics? Just unmitigated, unfocused meanness?
  
  no it isn't
Great display of standing up against false "anti-semitic" claims, when criticizing the politics of Israel.
~~The article unfortunately does not state who won...does anyone know? The BBC basketball section obviously doesn't, at least I couldn't find it there.~~
Edit: The article actually states the result. Israel won 87-57. :/
- Says is the article "which Israel won 87-57"
  
  I seem to have skipped multiple times over that information. Thanks and sorry BBC!
  Its even in the TLDR summary..quite embarassing. 😯
- Did the volleyball players kill Palestinian children?
  
  In addition to what Squizzy said, Israel has conscription, so there's a very good chance these athletes are / were members of the IDF. So it is entirely possible that they did engage in atrocities against Palestinians.
  
  Why did modern Germany engage in restitution after the war if the Nazi regime was finished the people did not support the actions of the government or in more recent cases, were not alive for the actions that part of their taxes go toward making up for?
It is inerrant to sport to be political. People are competing in teams based on political borders. Issues won't disappear because it's sport. It's socially here and teams take these with them.
- Inherent*
- If anything, sports serve as a distraction to the general public so that issues can continue to be ignored
- then dont compete against israel, but going and not shaking hands but still promoting (in a way) the israely team just feels wrong. its like going to qatar to play but wearing a rainbow flag, its virtue signaling nothing more.
  
  Ireland's top players abstained
  
  its like going to qatar to play but wearing a rainbow flag, its virtue signaling
  People didn't even end up wearing rainbow flags because they were threatened with consequences. it was basically virtue-signaling-signaling
  
  Sports serve as a distraction for social issues. I would argue virtue signalling in that context has some real world impact
We have to show that we're better than them and win.
I will edit comment, because it was poor taste and inappropriate, thus the responses
But still, this sounds at least the way Soviet sports teams were supposed to always be the best to prove a point of Soviets being best in everything. That's not how things work, you don't prove your point by beating someone, in sport or otherwise.
- I don't agree with the other reply calling you an antisemite but that is still a huge stretch just to compare people to nazis. Have you never played a sport before
  
  holocaust inversion is textbook modern antisemitism.
- Now that is a fucking stretch. If you compare Jewish people with Nazis, don't complain when people call you an antisemite.
  
  Jewish people =/= Israeli state.
how am I supposed to understand this, what is the context here?
An Israeli player said "It's known that they are quite anti-semitic" and the entire irish team felt so offended by that that they decided not to shake the hands of the israeli team? To show them how unfounded the allegations are?
What are the details here? the article doesn't really say much
- You too, seem to misunderstand the same thing that the Israeli team misunderstood. ~~Sweden~~ Ireland does not like what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. ~~Sweden~~ Ireland has nothing against Jews but does not like Israel's genocide on Palestine. There is a difference between the country and the religion and antisemitism is used for the religion alone.
  It's like if you argue that you're getting downvoted because of antisemitism when you're actually being downvoted because you are wrong. It has nothing to do with religion
  
  That's cool but we're talking about the Irish basketball team.
  
  And the Israeli basketball team is the one commiting genocide somehow?
  
  that's what's odd about it. The article says the reason the team didn't shake hands was because of 'wholly inaccurate accusations of antisemitism'. So does that mean they would have shaken hands if one of the israeli team members had not made that accusation? Or were they just looking for a reason? This is what seems odd to me. If we imagine Ireland playing against an african nation that is also torn by war and conflict. If one of their team members accused the irish team of racism, and as a consequence, the entire irish team refuses to shake hands with the African team because they are so offended by these accusations. That would be really weird. That's why I asked for more context.
  There is a difference between the country and the religion and antisemitism is used for the religion alone.
  That is incorrect. Anti-Judaism is the (much older) component of antisemitism that is used for religion alone. While it is wrong to say that any criticism against israel is antisemitic, it is equally wrong to say that criticizing Israel is never antisemitic. in some cases it is. Sadly many people refuse to have this discussion. Israel exists because of antisemitism, not the other way around.
- I can see how a lack of context could be confusing, but Irish leadership have condemned Israel's genocide in Palestine and compared it to The Troubles and other past conflicts between Ireland and the larger Great Britain. Basically, Ireland and Israel have poor international relationships because Ireland doesn't like the way Israel slaughters tens of thousands of people while starving out millions based solely on ethnicity.
  This bad relationship has affected how the two sports teams interact with each other, and the Israeli pre-emptively insulted the Irish basketball association officials and team leadership before the match even began, so of course they won't be given bare minimum mutual respect when they show up to the matches in the future.
  
  and the Israeli pre-emptively insulted the Irish basketball association
  All I can find is that one team member called the irish team 'quite antisemitic'. I just don't see why that would be so upsetting. If it is unfounded, move on, don't make a big deal out of it. For some reason, being accused of antisemitism is a bigger of a deal than actually being antisemitic. And that is the reason why I am confused about it. One Israeli player says the irish team is antisemitic, the irish team gets angry and refuses to shake hands. Alright. But what is the context here? what exactly are the reasons why the israeli player made these accusations? And why does nobody care about the context? Everyone already decided whether the accusations are unfounded or not, without even knowing anything about the context. Imagine someone being accused of racism without being given any sort of context. And everyone already has an opinion whether the accusation is unfounded or not. It's just weird.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ireland women's basketball team refused to shake hands with Israel before their EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in Riga.
Basketball Ireland said the comments were "inflammatory and wholly inaccurate".Ireland players also lined up for their anthem beside the team's bench rather than the centre of the court before the game, which Israel won 87-57.
The match, which was moved to Riga because of the ongoing war in Gaza, went ahead despite Basketball Ireland facing pressure to boycott the fixture.
Basketball Ireland's statement prior to the start of the game read: "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 anti-Semitism, published on official Israeli Federation channels - that our players will not be partaking in traditional pre-match arrangements with our upcoming opponents.
"This includes exchanging of gifts, formal handshakes before or after the game, while our players will line up for the Irish national anthem by our bench rather than centre court.
"In an interview on the Israeli Basketball Association's website, United States-based student Saar said: "It's known that they are quite anti-semitic and it's no secret, and maybe that's why a strong game is expected.
The original article contains 420 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Religious people are mentally ill and should be treated as such.
No, its the irish team refusing to shake the hand of the israely team, not the whole country, this headline is misleading. Also, wtf is the basketball team of israel supposed to do if their political leaders go ham? i dont get it.
- Thanks for clarifying. The headline led me to believe that the team refused to shake hands with the entire nation of Israel, as is known to be the traditional pre-match arrangements of any game.
  
  The point being that their action is misguided.
  Also missed the point, that the where calling the antisemitic BEFORE they did anything I guess its justified.
- @WallEx
  I don't get your points. The headline refers to the Irish team rather than the whole country as you appear to claim, and the Irish team members refused to shake hands after the remarks by an Israeli player which has nothing to do with their political leaders. Maybe I get this wrong but I don't understand your comment.
  
  It says >Ireland women's basketball team refuse to shake hands with Israel
  Not the isreali team.
- Also, wtf is the basketball team of israel supposed to do if their political leaders go ham?
  If they don't agree with the current politics of their country? At the very least be very outspoken about it or just don't play at all under their flag. If you play for a national team in an international competition between nations, then of course you do represent the country. And that representation of course also includes current actions which many find at least very concerning.
  Or you can just label anyone who criticises Israel as anti-semitic. That's after all what the right wing extremists of Israel do constantly to shit blame away from their disgusting actions.
- Critiscing the actions of the state of Israel does not equal antisemitism
  
  The volleyball team didn't kill any Palestinian children.
  So how about don't discriminate against them based on where they were born?
- Sorry we don't support genocide.
  
  TIL playing volleyball = genocide when you're born in the wrong country.
- There doesn't seem to be any evidence though. It looks like the Israeli team made unsubstantiated accusations so you can't really blame the Irish team for reacting.
- Lol I found the bot

108 comments