We live in a world where people's lives are valued differently based on their nationality. That is why the Gaza Strip has turned into a modern-day Auschwitz. And here, almost everything is allowed, and any crime can be justified and ignored.
Israeli fans hope to see their national team at Euro 2024. PHOTO: Arhiva Adevărul
But everything has a limit! Including tolerance for “slaughter” Israeli, in response to the terrorist attack launched by disbelievers from Hamas. The price for this violent clash is paid by innocent people on both sides of the barricade. Hamas terrorists have killed 1,200 Israelis, and Netanyahu's government has been keen to prove it can far exceed that figure. And he succeeded! According to an article in Deutsche Welle (DW), by this time, 28,000 people have lost their lives in the Gaza Strip.
Faced with this tragedy, several members of the European Parliament reacted by signing a letter demanding the exclusion of Israel from international sports. Exactly according to the model applied to Russia, another aggressor state that kills in cold blood, but in Ukraine. The Irishman Chris McManus, MEP, distributed the letter signed by him and several colleagues, by which FIFA and UEFA are urged to exclude Israel from Euro 2024. The national team of this country is going to play, next month, more precisely on March 21, the first qualification play-off, in Budapest, with Iceland. In case of victory, Israel will reach the decisive tie, away, with the winner of the Bosnia-Ukraine match.
However, it remains to be seen how the geopolitical situation will evolve by then and whether the international forums will succeed “shieldaround Israel from a sporting point of view. The president of UEFA, the Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin (56 years old), admitted that, for now, his organization “does not have a final answer on the Israeli problem“. Ceferin also admitted that UEFA “receives more and more questions” about the eventual exclusion of Israel from Euro 2024.
And the pressure to punish the Israeli government, on the sports line, flows from all directions! The West Asian Football Confederation (WAFF), with its 12 member countries, has officially requested this. Then came the letter signed by several MEPs. And, concurrently with this effort, an online petition was also started to exclude Israel from international sports. In just a few hours, this petition gathered more than 70,000 signatures. And, to understand how the revolt against Israel manifests itself through sports, the journalists from Deutsche Welle gave us a concrete example.
The Israel-Ireland match (87-57), counting for the Women's EuroBasket 2025 qualifications, was preceded by a fiasco! Several athletes from Ireland called for a boycott of the meeting. After the federation in this country was threatened with a drastic suspension, in case of boycott, several players refused to travel to Riga (Estonia) for the match against Israel. Among them was Rebecca O'Keefe. She argued her decision to refuse the meeting with the Israeli national “to convey a strong message of solidarity with the Palestinian people, put in a terrible situation“.
An outrageous double-standard
The Israeli problem was also commented on by Katarina Pijetlovic, a lawyer by profession and specialist in sports matters. According to Deutsche Welle, Pijetlovic referred to an outrageous double-standard.
“The Israeli government must be pressed with all available levers. Including sports ones. More than 14,000 Palestinian children have already died in this military aggression in the Gaza Strip. And we see no reaction. FIFA, UEFA and the IOC are watching what is happening without any reaction. Things were completely different when it came to Russia. I notice that, in the case of Israel, it is required that sports and politics not be mixed. And this is the official position of some people who had a very different speech in the case of the RussiansPijetlovic said.
She concluded her statements by reminding that, at the present time, the presence of Israeli athletes also poses a very high risk for large-scale competitions, such as Euro 2024 (Germany, June 14 – July 14) and the Olympic Games in Paris (July 26 – August 11).
