Irish solidarity with the Palestinian cause has been massive for decades.
That's almost certainly what the Israeli player was referring to with this malicious mischaracterization:
It’s known that they are quite antisemitic and it’s no secret, and maybe that’s why a strong game is expected
Something about being brutalized and treated as second class citizens in your own home by a militarily dominant power seems to generate empathy for the plight of Palestinians.
That makes a lot of sense. I didn’t know Ireland had such strong solidarity with Palestine. I remember a story way back when the potato famine was happening and Ireland sent what little they could to the native Americans. Same story there. An oppressed people in their own homeland by a dominant military power.
And Native Americans. In 1847, during the Irish potato famine, the Choctaw Nation (fresh off being forcibly moved to Oklahoma and suffering themselves) made a donation to the Irish. Later, the Irish people realized what an amazing act of generosity that was in context and there’s now a special bond between Ireland and the Choctaw Nation.
Potato famine is a misnomer because they were producing more than enough food the whole time, but the British cared more about taxes and landlord rights than whether the people were starving.
Antisemitism is understood to mean prejudice against Jews.
Semitic languages is the formal name for the branch of the Afroasiatic language family that includes modern Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic and ancient languages like Akkadian and Phoenician.
Semitic people isn't a term that anyone uses for real, but if they did it would refer to peoples who have traditionally spoke semitic languages.
It's frustrating that the term antisemitism refers to prejudice against only a specific subset of the peoples who would fall under the semitic label. But deliberately misunderstanding the term antisemitism is also quite frustrating.
please update the text to indicate the accusations of antisemitism is from one of the israeli players and not due to the actual refusal to shake hands.
, Basketball Ireland said on social media that its players had decided to do away with the usual pre-match courtesies, linking the decision to earlier comments made by Israeli player Dor Saar.
In an interview published on Tuesday by the Israeli Basketball Association, Saar addressed the upcoming match with Ireland. “It’s known that they are quite antisemitic and it’s no secret, and maybe that’s why a strong game is expected,” she said. “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.”
Such a stupid take. Just because Ireland doesn't appreciate a settler colonial apartheid state, doesn't mean they have anything against Jewish people. Ireland understandably has these feelings towards what Israel is doing due to their own history with colonial powers invading and oppressing their people.
There history goes back a while, but it really took off when the Irish were “terrorists” fighting the British for their land back. And Ireland has continued to support Palestine, as Palestine supported them.
Basketball Ireland had put out two statements to address its games with Israel, including one that appeared to address the calls on social media to boycott the event over the October 7 War.
On January 25, they shared that they had expressed "strong concerns" to FIBA Europeat about the games with Israel and raised the option of not playing the games. The federation reportedly responded that Ireland would be subject to a fine of €100,000 and barred from the Women’s EuroBasket 2025 and 2027 Qualifiers.
That and the Irish got beat 87 to 57.
It's always unfortunate when sports are overshadowed by politics.
Your mystery source calling the ongoing genocide "the October 7 war" reveals it as deliberately anti-Palestinian in its framing and as such not a reliable source for objective reporting on the topic.
Back in the day, we needed this kind of stance to start ramping up pressure against Apartheid in South Africa. Our political leaders either hadn't wanted to or only made meaningless signs of disapproval. The Israeli apartheid and genocide must not be allowed to persist.
Ireland’s women’s basketball team refused to shake hands with their Israeli opponents on Thursday, amid outrage over accusations of antisemitism, as the two countries faced off at a EuroBasket qualifier.
“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 antisemitism, published on official Israeli federation channels – that our players will not be partaking in traditional pre-match arrangements with our upcoming opponents,” it said.
In recent weeks the women’s team had been wrestling with calls to boycott the match, which had been originally slated to be played in Israel in November but was postponed and moved to Riga after Basketball Ireland requested a neutral venue.
Several high-profile sporting figures had backed the call, with pressure on the players ramping up after the Israel Basketball Association shared photos from a practice session that included a visit by soldiers from the Israeli Defence Force.
Basketball Ireland said late last month that it had raised “strong concerns” about the fixtures with Israel to Fiba Europe and that it had floated the possibility of forfeiting the games.
“I would prefer to be talking about basketball and not this, we didn’t engage in the pre-match activities as a direct result of those unwarranted and unacceptable comments from the Israeli camp about our players,” he said in a statement.
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