'Palestinian' soccer team misses World Cup qualifier
Get out the world's smallest violin.The 'Palestinian' soccer team missed its World Cup soccer tournament qualifier in Singapore on Sunday, allegedly because of Israeli travel restrictions. Eighteen of the team's players live in Gaza.
The team didn't show for Sunday's game because 18 of its players and officials live in the Gaza Strip, according to Jamal Abu Hasheesh, spokesman for the Palestinian soccer federation.Several comments.
The Gaza Strip has been under tight control since the Islamic militant Hamas took power by force in June. Last month, Israel declared Gaza hostile territory and said it would only permit humanitarian hardship cases to leave.
Abu Hasheesh said the 18 team members didn't receive Israeli permits to leave Gaza for the game.
The federation has asked FIFA to reschedule the match. FIFA officials were not immediately available for comment.
Shadi Yassin, a spokesman for the Israeli military's office in charge of coordination with Gaza, said he was looking into the matter.
First, I thought that the World Cup tournament only involved states. How can a
Second, with all the poor, starving 'Palestinians,' why is the 'Palestinian Authority' spending money to field a soccer soccer team when it could use that money to feed its 'people.'
Third, why are they blaming Israel for this? Why can't they go out through Egypt? They have a border with Egypt that is not policed by Israel! (Of course, if they weren't terrorists, they might still have an airport in Gaza, but that's a separate issue).
Given FIFA's past history of anti-Israel activity, none of this is very surprising.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:18 PM
1 Comments:
Oh, boo-hoo. While you're getting that violin, grab me the world's smallest hanky.
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