Palestinian footballer, Mahmoud Sarsak, released after 3 years in an Israel jail

[deiseach]

Some Muslim countries want to blow Israeli off the face of the earth and have stated so publicially, that, to me is anti semitism and i do not think it would killGHD to have some sense of balance, what is wrong with that?

So what percentage of his statements should be expressions of sympathy for dead Israeli's to constitute 'balance'?

[stew]

Some Muslim countries want to blow Israeli off the face of the earth and have stated so publicially, that, to me is anti semitism and i do not think it would killGHD to have some sense of balance, what is wrong with that?

So what percentage of his statements should be expressions of sympathy for dead Israeli's to constitute 'balance'?

Hmmm, one word condemning the murder of innocent Israeli's out of roughly 20 posts would be a nice gesture don't you think?

He questioned, and quite rightly  someone who posted an obnoxious and hateful comment and brought their humanity, that said if he has not one good thing to say about innocent Israeli's then I would have to question his humanity, it looks to me from everything he has ever posted that he is very much an Israeli hater imo.

[deiseach]

Hmmm, one word condemning the murder of innocent Israeli's out of roughly 20 posts would be a nice gesture don't you think?

Tokenism

[stew]

Hmmm, one word condemning the murder of innocent Israeli's out of roughly 20 posts would be a nice gesture don't you think?

Tokenism

Nah, human decency.

[deiseach]

Nah, human decency.

So all it would take for Willie Frazer to enter the ranks of human decency would be to mention the victims of Loyalist/Brit terror 5% of the time? No matter what he said the rest of the time? Nope, don't buy it.

[stew]

Nah, human decency.

So all it would take for Willie Frazer to enter the ranks of human decency would be to mention the victims of Loyalist/Brit terror 5% of the time? No matter what he said the rest of the time? Nope, don't buy it.

What is there to buy? no matter what I said % wise you would have disagreed with me, I tried to help you by making it simple and simply have him say something, anything at all that would show some remorse for the Israeli dead, he  has failed to do so on this thread and to me it looks more and more like he does not give two shites about the Israeli dead!

Your comparison with Wullie Frazer is ridiculous, you cannot compare GHD and that tr**p Frazer, one has character and one is a hate filled wee cnut that should be locked up for what has come out of his mouth.

Ok, i will up the % to say 25%, would that be more acceptable to you? 

[give her dixie]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/170264/palestinian-soccer-player-mahmoud-sarsak-wont-play-fc-barcelonas-game#

Palestinian Soccer Player Mahmoud Sarsak Won't Play FC Barcelona's Game

"His slogan is the gun, whereas mine is football, whose message is love and peace. For this reason I will refuse."


You may or may not remember the name Mahmoud Sarsak, subject of the most important and most underreported sports story of 2012. Sarsak is the Palestinian national team soccer player who was jailed for three years without charges by the Israeli government. He was denied contact with his family, a trial and kept largely in solitary confinement for reasons that bewilder his loved ones to this day. Finally Sarsak was freed after refusing food for ninety days, losing a third of his body weight, and through his personal agony, spurring international outrage. (Having 2,000 fellow hunger strikers certainly helped.) Organizations like Amnesty International, the 50,000-strong international union of soccer players, FIFpro and even Sepp Blatter, the morally sclerotic leader of FIFA, called for his release. Israel relented but that is clearly not the end of Sarsak's story.

Now Mahmoud Sarsak is in the news again after refusing an invitation sent by the legendary team FC Barcelona to attend its October Clasico match next week against Real Madrid. Sarsak will not make the trip because FC Barcelona wants him there to mute planned protests against the presence of another person invited to attend the match, former Israeli Defense Forces soldier Sergeant Major Gilad Shalit. Shalit is an Israeli folk hero after being a prisoner of war for five years, captured by Hamas in Gaza on June 25, 2006, on the cusp of Israel's brutal 2006 bombing campaign in Lebanon, known as the "July War." One of the many circulated petitions protesting the Shalit invite was specifically written and signed by Palestinian soccer players and endorsed by entire clubs. Their petition read:

"We, Palestinian footballers, athletes and sporting organizations and officials, are dismayed to learn the great team of Barcelona will host Gilad Shalit to the Clasico, Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, on October 7th, while more than 5000 Palestinian political prisoners remain rotting, many in isolation, many with no visits, many on hunger strike with no attention or care for them to be released....Just as the effective boycott of sports teams from the South African apartheid regime showed, sporting and political life cannot be separated. We ask you to not show solidarity with the army that oppresses, imprisons and kills Palestinian sportsmen and women in Palestine."

FC Barcelona had to respond to the torrent of criticism on its website, stating that contrary to reports it did not in fact invite Shalit itself but "accepted a request" from Israeli authorities to have Shalit "watch a match during his visit to Barcelona." In the same press release, Barcelona announced its intent to unite Shalit and Sarsak as a symbol of efforts to bring "peace and harmony to the Middle East."

But this is one game Sarsak wouldn't play. As Sarsak said of Sgt. Maj. Shalit, "His slogan is the gun, whereas mine is football, whose message is love and peace. For this reason I will refuse."

Sarsak also made clear that understood that the roots of the invite wasn't a desire for "peace and harmony" but a response to protest. "I know that the invitation was issued after heavy pressure on FC Barcelona so that it could get out of its dilemma, but the Palestinian people are not and will not be a means for [others] to get out of their dilemmas."

The courage of this decision is very real. Not only was Sarsak rejecting FC Barcelona but also his own Palestinian embassy officials who formally asked him to attend. He was making clear that peace and harmony with Sgt. Maj. Gilad Shalit in the current circumstances would do more harm than good, selling the idea that peace under the current circumstances of quarantine and occupation was a peace worth having. As Sarsak said, "I cherish the invitation of a great club like Barcelona but not [as] an invitation for normalization."

Sarsak also stated that he didn't want anyone to interpret his rejection of the invite as a refusal to speak out politically about his time behind bars. "It is a great honor and it is a victory for a Palestinian prisoner and for the Palestinian cause and a victory for our principles and stances that a prisoner who is at the same time an athlete should go out and explain the suffering of his people," he said. "But in the presence of the soldier Gilad Shalit on the same stands, I will refuse this invitation."

[theticklemister]

fair dues to him.

good man give er dixie for reporting this news.

[dillinger]

Can't think Barca will miss him.

So he won't go because an Israeli is going? Though the Israeli will go if he is there?

Puts him down for a bigot imo.

[fitzroyalty]

Can't think Barca will miss him.

So he won't go because an Israeli is going? Though the Israeli will go if he is there?

Puts him down for a bigot imo.

A former high-ranking Israeli military man actually.

Nothing bigoted in that, if you'd care to look up the Israeli army's track record, I'm sure you'd agree.

[dillinger]

No i won't look it up thank you, and i don't agree.

[fitzroyalty]

No i won't look it up thank you, and i don't agree.

So you're disagreeing on something you haven't even researched? Fair enough.

[Mentalman]

A former high-ranking Israeli military man actually.

Hold on, let's be fair, he was a corporal when he was captured, he was promoted to sergeant in captivity, in no army in the world is that high ranking, irrespective of what people might think of the IDF.

[fitzroyalty]

A former high-ranking Israeli military man actually.

Hold on, let's be fair, he was a corporal when he was captured, he was promoted to sergeant in captivity, in no army in the world is that high ranking, irrespective of what people might think of the IDF.

His rank is actually irrelevant. The fact he was in the IDF is enough.

[Mentalman]

A former high-ranking Israeli military man actually.

Hold on, let's be fair, he was a corporal when he was captured, he was promoted to sergeant in captivity, in no army in the world is that high ranking, irrespective of what people might think of the IDF.

His rank is actually irrelevant. The fact he was in the IDF is enough.

If his rank is irrelevant why try to make him sound like he was something he wasn't? You were the one who mentioned it, and were later talking about research after all? He was also on compulsory military service at the time of his capture, i.e. he's not a professional soldier, so the fact he was in the IDF is not enough. EDIT - the fact he may be used as a PR pawn is, though I understand he works as a sports journo now?

For what it's worth I think Sarsak is probably correct to refuse the invite, it stinks of Barca trying to extricate themselves from a PR nightmare in a pretty ham fisted manner. Shalit would do Barca a massive favour by withdrawing too, and leaving the only politics of the Classico the usual, Castillion vs Catalan.