A pro-Palestine group intends to protest outside Quicken Loans Arena before Sunday night’s preseason game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel-Aviv, David Blatt’s former club.
The group, who calls Maccabi Tel-Aviv the “terror entity’s team” on its Facebook page, has 87 confirmed guests, at last count.
“It has not been uncommon for Israeli basketball and soccer teams to attract protestors in Europe,” writes Cynthia Blank in Israel National News. “Now, with Maccabi, the Euroleague champs, returning to the United States, the trend appears to have spread.”
Maccabi plays another exhibition game against the Brooklyn Nets, before which a similar protest is scheduled.
Adding fuel to the fire in Cleveland is David Blatt’s outspoken support for Israel, which local Palestine supporters feel is inappropriate. His comments to an Israeli newspaper in August supporting action against Palestine have been published on the protest group’s Facebook page to generate support. Additionally, Blatt will be “headlining” a Sunday morning tribute to Israeli soldiers wounded in Gaza.
The Cleveland Jewish Federation, obviously, isn’t pleased with the Palestinian group’s decision to protest the match. In a statement to the NEOMG, president Stephen Hoffman said Palestinians are refusing to protest “in the right place.”
“They should be protesting the terrorist leadership of Hamas that started the war this summer, prolonged the war this summer, and, in doing so, caused the death of its own innocent civilians.”
Unlikely.
Good news is, everyone has the right to express their views and protest on public property, which the Q most certainly is — thanks Sin Tax! — and the better news, for those protesting, is that Cleveland now represents the nucleus of the basketball universe and any protest or rally or pre-game hoopla of any sort is likely to gain much broader exposure.
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2014.
As a Jew and as Israeli im glad they will be there. Ill be able to see the faces of those who want to kill me as they support the destruction of Israel which is clearly outlined in Hamas’ charter. See u there!
Seriously? I’m pretty sure they’re anti-israeli terrorism. Not anti-YOU. F’ing jews need to get over yourselves.
Yousuck:Anti-Israeli terrorism? How does defending yourself/country from extremists put you in a terrorist category?
Al Awda Cleveland and protesters only support the existence of safe relations with and safe existence of global Jewish communities, especially our vibrant Jewish community in Northeast Ohio. This stance does not diminish dissent against the US-based support of militarist Zionism (that also exists in Northeast Ohio).
It’s unfortunate that critiques of Coach Blatt’s or the Cleveland Jewish Federation’s comments are not listed here.
Simply, there can be no ‘quiet’ for Israel and its military supporters while they maintain the occupation of Palestine, and restrict movement of goods and people through these controlled territories. Israel further rejects the rights of Palestinian people to return to their homes, and violently enforces apartheid to this end. The conflation of armed military and/or paramilitary resistance movements with the civilian population of Gaza and its justification are criminal and indicate a more sinister goal of annihilation of the people of Gaza.
This summer alone we saw the clear majority of the casualties in Gaza among the civilian population, with ~1500 civilians killed. Israeli police themselves found that cells independent of Hamas were responsible for the kidnapping and murder of 3 Israeli settlers- thus entirely miscalculating and beginning the violence this summer. This is a process even described among the IDF as ‘cutting the grass.’ All of this occurs with the simultaneous advance of the occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem.