AJ English and other anti-Israel propaganda outlets have accused Israeli forces of attacking a palestinian Arab football match:
The incident even made it to a website called Inside World Football, who covered it in very one-sided fashion:
Israeli forces storm Palestine’s Faisal Al Husseini stadium in unprovoked tear gas attack on players and fans
Israeli forces broke into the Faisal Al Husseini international stadium last night and fired tear gas on to the pitch and into the stands, halting the final of the Abu Ammar Cup for an hour while players and fans were treated.
The Israeli attack appears to be unprovoked and the Israeli authorities have not issued a statement regarding the incident or who ordered the troops to attack players and fans in the stadium.
The Faisal Al Husseini international stadium is the home of the Palestinian FA. The Abu Ammar Cup is named after former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat who was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004.
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About 10pm two Israeli armoured vehicles broke into the stadium. Soldiers exited the vehicles and began firing tear gas from behind a wall.
The match was stopped to treat the injured which included women and children.
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The actions of the Israeli military in the West Bank last night will do nothing to help their argument that they are good global citizens when it comes to football and the right to play – a right that has implemented in their favour but which they refused to respect in Palestine last night.
So what happened?
I checked with my friend Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, who provided me with the following response:
The aforementioned soccer field is right next to the separation fence. The place is known as a place for the Shabachim (palestinian Arabs who enter Israel illegally) to enter, so a proactive activity was carried out there to prevent their entry.
During the activity, the forces encountered extreme disturbances, including throwing Molotov cocktails, shooting fireworks and objects at the forces, and more… The forces arrived by means including firing gas that, due to the winds in the place – some of the gas reached the adjacent soccer field.
At no point was anything fired at the soccer field and no forces entered the field.
According to Fleur’s source, the AP and Al Jazeera have been briefed about this.
Funny, I do not seem to have seen them include this in their reporting. Why would that be?
Updates
4/5/23 13:20: The BDS Movement are now parroting the libel
