Haterade: sports organizations have a moral imperative to stand with palestine
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sports organizations have a moral imperative to stand with palestine
As a sports-related newsletter, I have struggled to figure out the balance between keeping this newsletter on-topic and ensuring that I don’t act like the ongoing Palestinian genocide is not happening. So far, I’ve done that by covering the overlap of sports and Israel’s war on Gaza where I can, as well as always including relevant links in my weekly roundups. I admit that I don’t know if I’m doing enough, though I suppose there’s no such thing as “enough” in the face of a genocide.
A second Palestinian Ultimate coach, Yousef al-Heela, was murdered by Israel on April 16th. He joins Muhammad Shakir Safi, another one of Ultimate Palestine’s youth coaches in Gaza, who was killed in an Israeli air strike on November 15th. Both men received their coaching certificate in January 2020 at a training in the Gaza Strip. May their memories be a blessing.
The men are two of over 97 athletes, 32 officials and technicians, and 18 scouts are who have been victims of Israel's war on Gaza, as
has been documenting over at .Earlier this year, I wrote a piece for The Nation about the way the sport of Ultimate has rallied around Ultimate Palestine, demanding that the sport’s international governing body, the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), express support for the Palestinian athletes and call for a ceasefire. The WFDF did not respond to requests for comment when I reached out back in January, but on April 16—the same day Yousef al-Heela was killed—WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch appeared on the Deep Look podcast, giving what may have been his first public comment about the global movement asking the federation to call for a ceasefire. It was as spineless as you might expect.
“It absolutely causes me and everyone else within the organization an incredible amount of agony,” Rauch said. “It's just such a horrible humanitarian crisis, the atrocities that have been committed from both sides are unconscionable and it's really hard as a sports organization with limited resources to try to sort out and come out with a statement with full knowledge and understanding.”
The “both sides” rhetoric is astounding when faced with the facts of the situation. Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7th. Over 10,000 are estimated to be buried under the rubble. Gazans have been starved and displaced in an attempt at ethnic cleansing. Israel has one of the most well-funded militaries in the world, thanks to the United States. Meanwhile, Palestine doesn’t even have its own army. That’s why the term “war” doesn’t fit what is happening in Palestine; a “war” implies two countries fighting against each other. But a people without a military can’t put up any fight, let alone an equal one. It is a genocide, plain and simple.
This genocide is the reason that college campuses have erupted in recent weeks, as students around the country protest the U.S.’s role in the conflict, only to be met with disproportionate levels of violence from their schools and the state. New York Magazine has published a package of stories written and photographed entirely by the staff of the Columbia Daily Spectator, which is worth your time.
On April 25th, a pro-Palestine encampment sprung up at UCLA, only for pro-Israel counterprotesters to show up several days later—leading to violence. “One video showed groups of protesters and counter-protesters clashing, with at least one person punching someone else,” Zidan writes at Sports Politika. “Among the assailants was David Kaminsky, an Israeli boxer and gym owner who was caught on camera using racial insults and spitting on protestors.”
“There's a reason reason why sport organizations in general try to stay out of the political arena, and that's because it's so complicate. There are typically two sides of the issues,” Nauch, the WFDF president, said on Deep Look.
“We just don't feel like there's anything we realistically can add by trying to add our voice because we can't really get to a clear position that says we take one side versus the other.”
As I read these words from Nauch, I can’t help but think of the famous ones from Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Ultimate Palestine had this to say in response to Nauch’s comments: “We are… appalled by WFDF's apathy and silence towards their players in the Gaza Strip. They would rather ‘complicate’ the humanitarian crisis and genocide in Gaza to justify their unwillingness to be courageous and stand up for the humanity of the Palestinians.”
Why aren’t WNBA pre-season games being broadcast?
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