Sports and war - Jan 9, 2009

Ann wrote:


In some ways it seems to me almost trivial to be talking about sports when there are so many tragedies on both sides of this war, but the war has also affected sports in our area of the world.

The most recent events are probably the most significant. Israel has a female tennis player named Shahar Perets who is usually ranked in the top 20 in the world. Yesterday the street outside the hotel where she is staying was filled with angry demonstrators carrying some vicious signs, and shouting abuse at her. As she said in a press conference, she is a tennis player, not a politician.

In addition, an Israeli basketball team playing in Turkey was mobbed at the beginning of the game. Swarms of people (including a lot of women)wearing kaffiyehs ran onto the court shouting "intifada, intifada". Security people rushed the Israeli team into their dressing room and barricaded all access points. The team was holed up in there for over an hour and a half while the police tried to subdue the crowds both inside and outside the sports arena. The level of hatred was scary, especially since Turkey has been our ally for decades. It is one of the favorite destination points for Israeli tourists, and during a horrific earthquake in Turkey ten years ago Israel not only send its rescue team, but also the tons of food, clothing, bedding and supplies donated by the Israeli public.

Most international teams scheduled to play in Israel have cancelled. The only exception was the Tiberius marathon yesterday.

Most teams in Israel this week have decided to cancel all events until further notice. For many of them, some of their players are now in the army. For others, their homes and training facilities are all in areas being hit by rockets. And early on in the war it became very clear that in the soccer teams which had both Arab and Jewish players that there were going to be problems. One of the Arab teams staged a huge protest during the game itself at a home game. Since this was the same soccer field in which a riot broke out two years ago and the Jewish fans were locked into the press room for over 3 hours, the team they were to play at the weekend (Kiryat Shmonah) declared that they would not play against Saknin, and if the the bus tried to enter KS it would be stopped. An Arab playing on an Israeli team, and two Jewish players playing for an Arab team, requested a temporary leave of absence, as they felt it would be dangerous for them to attend training in a hostile area.

One of the first civilian casualties of this war was the wife of one of the trainers. She and her sister were coming home from the gym when a rocket fell next to their car.

And one of the top competitors in Israel's newest season of the TV reality show "Survivor" was called up on the first day of the war. He is an officer in an infantry unit.

On the positive side, junior sports leagues in the Tiberius area have been hosting their counterparts from the south. A sports tournament has also been set up.

In ancient times it used to be traditional for any fighting to be temporarily halted during the Olympics. Would that it were so today.

A