Terror in Turkey for Israeli basketball team

[Yala]

Jan 7, 2009 0:53 | Updated Jan 7, 2009 2:07
Terror in Turkey for Bnei Hasharon
By ALLON SINAI

Bnei Hasharon experienced two hours of terror in Ankara on Tuesday evening.

Moments before the tip-off of the Israeli team's Eurocup encounter against Turk Telekom some 3,000 Turkish fans shouted 'Allah Akbar' and, by some accounts, 'death to the Jews' in protest against the IDF's actions in Gaza.

Other fans threw bottles at the Israeli players and stormed the court, forcing the Israelis to flee for the dressing rooms.

The players and staff were only able to leave for their hotel thanks to a massive police escort after being stranded for two long hours in the locker room.

Bnei Hasharon chairman Eldad Akunis described the terrifying moments.

"We arrived at the arena under heavy security. There were 1,500 policemen in the arena, 500 of them in plain clothes. The fans waved Palestinian flags and shouted abuse towards Israel," Akunis said.

"As the game was set to begin they stormed the court and we raced towards the dressing rooms. Our players are in shock and all we want at the moment is to return back home."

Team captain Meir Tapiro said only the police's intervention prevented the players from being attacked.

"The fans raced on to the court and ran towards us like madmen, but the police stopped them. It was really scary," he said.

Amazingly, the game referee demanded that Bnei Hasharon play after all the supporters were cleared from the arena, but the team refused and is set to receive a technical loss.

"After a delay due to on-court disturbances before the game, the Turk Telekom vs Bnei Hasharon game was not played due to Bnei´s refusal to play despite clearing the arena of fans," a ULEB press release read.

"The situation will be reviewed by the disciplinary judge to give the final ruling. Under league rules the refusal to play a game by a team can be sanctioned and the game can be given to the opposing team 20-0."

Earlier, a pro-Islamic group earlier set an Israeli flag on fire outside the arena.

Turkey has harshly criticized Israel over the ground offensive in Gaza and has urged an immediate cease-fire. It has also called on the United Nations to take steps to end the violence.

AP contributed to this report.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

[Steven]

Jesus...it is a worldwide problem yet?

Anyone who says that it is only a '"few" deserves a kick in the ass.

[Mosche]

Well...these are the exceptions! Islam is the religion of peace...I'm sure someone here can back me up! I mean 1500 police officers for a crowd of 3000--they must be used to peace!

Seriously: Let's pray that the team gets back to Israel safely.

[pizza4theidf]

How horrible

[Yala]

This is a shame what happened in Turkey. For such a country to become jihadist would be a real shame, but things like this have happened in many countries, most recently in Iran.

[israel_heart]

huh

How stupid !!!!!!

[Reffo]

The CNN reporting is beyond belief, they are no longer even trying to conceal their anti Israel bias! I just watched this bitch of a CNN reporter speculating (with a straight face), she said something like this: "...it is still not clear whether this game will be re-scheduled or whether Israel will be penalized due to a technical breach ..."

The mind boggles! The game is played in Turkey, Israeli players were threatened by a Turkish crowd to such an extent that the game had to be stopped! Yet this CNN reporter dared to even intimate that Israel could be the one to be penalized? They must think that it's still the 1930's, SHAME ON CNN for allowing such reporting!

On second thought, it is what one would expect of them, it's symptomatic of their sub standard reporting in general when it comes to Israel. I am disgusted with them and their ilk!

[Rob]

They must think that it's still the 1930's, SHAME ON CNN for allowing such reporting!

On second thought, it is what one would expect of them, it's symptomatic of their sub standard reporting in general when it comes to Israel. I am disgusted with them and their ilk!

Saw that face of Ashrawi on CNN, saying "Israel used more bombs in the first minute of the Gaza attack than the total amount of Hamas rockets launched into Israel in the past years, which was about 400." She said this without rebuttal.

WTF???

[Anatolia]

Nah they are not basketball fans,they are member of radical saadet party which has around 1-2% votes.Look at their clothing,do they look like an average Turk to you? Their dresses say everything about their ideology. Many of you have been to Turkey,sure you guys know how the normal Turks dress like.

[Reffo]

Anatolia

Yes, I understand what you are saying, every country and every people have their share of idiots. But I was criticizing CNN not all the Turks for some of their idiots...

[Reffo]

Saw that face of Ashrawi on CNN, saying "Israel used more bombs in the first minute of the Gaza attack than the total amount of Hamas rockets launched into Israel in the past years, which was about 400." She said this without rebuttal.

WTF???

They thrive on lies, misrepresentations, half truths, double standards, sanctimony, hypocrisy etc .... what can one say? CNN and their ilk are guilty of waging war on Israel, a propaganda war!

They have been covering this conflict around the clock...I have never seen anything like it! In the recent Russia Georgia war, there were 1400 civilian deaths (as opposed to about a 100 reported civilian deaths in the Gaza war, which is of course regrettable). But they didn't put anywhere near that effort into their reporting of the Georgian war.

One would think that CNN believe that Arab lives are worth more than Georgian, Ossetian and other civilian lives. Of course they don't seem to rate Jewish lives at all, they hardly let out a pip for the last 5 or so years when Hamas were targeting Israeli civilians. And I don't just mean Qassam rockets. I also mean the spate of Homocide bombings that Hamas unleashed until their style was hampered by the security wall. And their LAME excuse on behalf of Hamas and the Palestinians who support them (many)? "The Occupation".... But they consistently forget to mention Barak's year 2000 offer which would have ended "the occupation" and that it wasn't good enough for Hamas and many Palestinians because they want more than just the West Bank and Gaza, their aspirations include Israel proper as it always did, since 1948 .... since before there was any "Occupation"!

[Turkey]

SHAME but maybe not lol ! because these people are not even Turk. they came from ıraq and possiby iran to make our image break on world people ( omg what a sentence lol ! ) i mean , Turks dont do this. everyone here knows that ,ing hamas terrorists started the fight.

[Turkey]

By the way , Turkey is choosen as Peace -Defender at gazza by United Nation

[Rob]

SHAME but maybe not lol ! because these people are not even Turk. they came from ıraq and possiby iran to make our image break on world people ( omg what a sentence lol ! ) i mean , Turks dont do this. everyone here knows that ,ing hamas terrorists started the fight.

I hope you are right. What is the story presented in the Turkish press? Until now I haven´t seen condemnation or whatsoever and only positive reactions from Turks (you being the exception). What I have read in English versions of Turkish newspapers is that the Israeli team refused to play and probably will loose 20-0.

[Mosche]

I still contend that there is some liability on the part of the Turks. If you need a police force of 1500--even 100--for a crowd of 3000, there is a problem. If you need that many police officers, why allow a crowd at all?

If the thugs were not representative of Turks in general, and if they were just 1% or 2% of the population, how did they get all of the tickets? If that particular minority didn't have all of the tickets, then there were other Turks involved in the incident.

For what it's worth, I've been to SEC football games with crowds from 50,000 up to 105,000 fans that had fewer than 100 clothed police officers.