Israeli TV reporter Moav
Vardi was told by a fan
wearing a Saudi Arabia kit
that he was "not welcome"
in Qatar and "there is no
Israel" during live TV
coverage of the World Cup
on Saturday
The veteran Palestinian
politician and peace
negotiator Hanan Ashrawi
tweeted:
The World Cup
“reception” afforded
Israeli visitors &
journalists should have
come as no surprise!
Palestine remains a matter
of conscience &
commitment to the Arab
public & people of
conscience everywhere.
Israel’s cruel &
illegal occupation can
never be normalised.
The weekend before the
World Cup began hundreds of
settlers attacked
Palestinian homes and
businesses in Hebron
with the IDF looking on. A
local resident described
what he had seen and
experienced:
They arrived here, some
of them apparently drunk,
made trouble, and the army
helped them while they
were attacking us. The
neighborhood is closed
like a prison, by
checkpoints. In other
places, people flee when
there is an attack, but
here we had nowhere to go.
The checkpoint was closed.
They descended upon us,
and we were stuck in our
homes.
In one case that has
dominated social media an
Israeli peace activist is
seen being assaulted
by an IDF soldier. The
activist was subsequently
detained and faces charges
of obstruction.
In another that has
shocked, amongst others Gary
Lineker, the IDF is filmed
removing primary age school
children before their school
is demolished in the West
Bank village of Masafer
Yatta. From Doha, Lineker tweeted
“Awful.”
As Benjamin Netanyahu
cobbles together a
government that is the most
extreme that Israel has ever
seen, Arabs wonder where is
the outrage in Europe that
an avowed racist
and homophobe has been
brought into his cabinet?
Avi Maoz will be put in
charge of a new department
focussed on “Jewish
identity.” Maoz’s party
claims the LGBTQ community
has “forced its agenda” on
the rest of Israeli society
and in a 2019 campaign video
compared LGBTQ and Reform
Jews to the Nazis. He has
also called for Gay Pride
marches to be banned and
lobbied for the return of
so-called gay conversion
therapy.
Netanyahu had already brought
on board another
extremist Arab-hating
politician Itamar Ben-Gvir
and made him the minister of
national security where he
will oversee the police and
he is negotiating
with a third, Bezalel
Smotrich. All three share an
agenda rooted in sexist,
homophobic and racist
ideology.
Meanwhile the magic of the
World Cup has kicked in and
Qatar can begin to enjoy the
windfalls that have come
from putting this tiny Gulf
state onto the world stage
in a way that only a global
sporting event can achieve.
As the Times noted,
commenting on a meeting
between US Secretary of
State Antony Blinken and
Qatari deputy PM and foreign
minister Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al-Thani, “this
is where the real rewards of
the Qatar 2022 tournament
are to be found for Qatar:
affirming their role at the
heart of international
diplomacy, becoming a magnet
for global wealth, a
convenor of Middle Eastern
interests,” a bold claim,
one that Abu Dhabi and
Riyadh will without a doubt
contest in the months and
years to come.
And on a final football
note, Ronaldo who departed
Manchester United in high
dudgeon is now reportedly
being pursued
by the Saudi club Al Nassr
with typically eye-watering
amounts of money. The 37
year-old is said to be close
to signing a three year deal
with the Riyadh club worth
US$ 225 million.