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181 Comments
- inactive, on 02/16/2009, -15/+59NO.
The question is:
Why are we still holding special events in places were the current mentality comes straight from the Middle Ages? - minoss, on 02/16/2009, -3/+47It's been true for a while that the UAE doesn't accept Israel passports.
- Bulldogge16, on 02/16/2009, -4/+35You don't want to visit that country with a Israeli stamp on your passport either....
Speaking from experience. - slhaynes, on 02/16/2009, -13/+42If all of the athletes aren't allowed, then none should be there.
- Maddoktor2, on 02/16/2009, -5/+33Dubai just screwed itself out of any chance of hosting the 2016 Olympics.
- Nayson, on 02/16/2009, -6/+33I was thinking much the same when Cat Stevens was denied entry to the USA.
- inactive, on 02/16/2009, -9/+36They should have canceled the event immediately. Shahars family shouldn't even have a say on this matter. Sports and Politics should never mix.
- RapidEye, on 02/16/2009, -5/+24We'll soon see how supportive the other players are - if they play rather than walk in protest, then shame on them. Take your endorsement money and go lounge on the beach for a week.
- bastardx, on 02/16/2009, -2/+19Same thing happened in 2004 World Chess Championship in Libya
- Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -0/+16I've posted this before and yet had a decent answer - what _should_ Israel do? What would you do in their place?
The situation pre-war was a complete 100% withdrawl from Gaza (civilian and military), with borders closed due to the constant attacks by Gazans (which the Israeli withdrawl from Gaza only intensified, rather than reduced as was to be expected). Opening the checkpoints for free travel would have unquestionably led to militant attacks taking place in Israel leading to the loss of civilian life.
So basically, Israel was not in Gaza, and only kept the blockade up due to the constant attacks, even after they had effectively given the Gazans their own state. Now Hamas is launching a dozen rockets a day at your territory, and saying they will not stop until the borders are open.
Israel at this point has 3 options...
1) Put up with the loss of property, life caused by the rockets
2) Open the borders and suffer a loss of life at the influx of militants
3) Try to stop them launching rockets militarily.
After years of shenanigans, they picked 3. Can't say I blame them. What would you do? - Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -11/+25Doesn't Dubai and most of the muslim world have an officially sanctioned caste system, defining a different set of rules and behaviours for non-muslims?
Isn't Dubai an 'Apartheid State' as they refuse to allow Israeli's to enter? Or are you basically saying that Gaza and the West Bank are in fact _not_ (and do not deserve to be) seperate states from Israel? As if Dubai is allowed to exclude Israeli's from their country, why can Israel not exclude Palestinians* from theirs?
* Palestinians, who enjoy going 'boom' in cafe's. Not to be confused with Israeli arabs, who have full rights in Israel, as opposed to the Jews in the surrounding muslim countries who have been almost completely evicted and had all their land and property siezed. - sultanknish, on 02/15/2009, -24/+37We'll see if these Apartheid States are called to account for such tactics
- hmphargh, on 02/16/2009, -2/+14Is anyone surprised by this? When I was living in the UAE, my father regularly had to go on business trips. One such trip was to Israel. He had to go to the UK, to the American Embassy to get a new passport, go to Israel, go back to the UK, to the American Embassy, get ANOTHER new passport, and return home to the UAE. It is pretty well known that Arab states and Israel don't get along, it might not be right, but it is the way it has been for quite some time.
- hobophobia, on 02/16/2009, -20/+32Apartheid you say? That's probably why the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem is the biggest and most populace quarter. If Israel broke up their capitol into four quarters, if they were actually an apartheid state, why would the Muslim quarter be the biggest?
Its not apartheid at all, Hamas has chosen Palestinian neighborhoods as battlegrounds by launching rockets from civilian neighborhoods. The IDF goes where the rockets are coming from, and Israel has no control over whether or not the rockets are coming from a civilian home or from a military base, that is up to Hamas.
Oh yeah, it also makes perfect sense that EVERYTHING in Israel is in hebrew, arabic and english, from street signs to nutritional information on food. How do you reconcile Israel making it law that street signs have to be in Arabic as well as Hebrew? That dosen't sound like an apartheid attitude to me.
If you actually went to Israel, you would see that this whole "apartheid" attitude about Israel stems from a few isolated cases of Israel relocating Palestinian civilians away from their neighborhoods. These particular neighborhoods were chosen because Hamas launched rockets targeting Israeli civilians from these places.
Where is the racial segregation? Where the racism? Go to Israel, nobody hates arabs, people hate Hamas.
Calling Israel an apartheid state means that you are either ignorant, or racist. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are just regurgitating what some neo-Nazi said, you don't seem like the kind of guy that forms his own opinions about things. - mst3kcrow, on 02/16/2009, -1/+12Ok, you need to share that story. It gets some of us way too curious when you just say: "speaking from experience". :)
- MoClippa, on 02/16/2009, -3/+14This doesn't bode well for Dubai. I can't say I'm surprised they did this however I'll note that it likely wasn't government policy but social pressure from various quarters of the UAE that pushed them to make that decision. Dubai and other highly capitalist neighboring Arab countries have tremendous interests and investments in Israel, they also allow Israeli businesses to function on their soil under different names. I remember recently the Bahraini foreign minister came back to a tremendous Salafi and right-Shi'a parliamentary backlash after shaking hands and posing for a photo op with Tzipi Livini. They demanded a public apology and he did in fact come up to the pulpit, however he just told them to shove it up their asses.
There are various groups in society that promote revoking/denying visa's to Israelis (sometimes even to Jews depending on the country) or allowing businesses they consider too amoral to come in. The regimes often have to give in once the propaganda campaign builds up enough social pressure, much to the detriment of their prospects for future business, foreign investment, or in this case, international sporting events on their soil. Dubai is already having a hard time because of the economic crises and only staying on its two feet because Abu Dhabi keeps bailing them out, this isn't going to bode well at the top and I suspect there will be a lot of behind the scenes wrangling. - factory81, on 02/16/2009, -3/+14Dubai is ridiculous. They want people to go there for the ultra luxury resort vacation. Sea-world theme park, skiing, whatever you name it they are trying to do it in Dubai. Yet they hurt themselves with this sort of ridiculous stuff.
- tempg, on 02/16/2009, -3/+14This is what happened in a basketball game in Turkey when an Israeli team played:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVBTlvfkUO0
"Turkish fans hurled coins and other objects at Israeli players..."
Sorry about the music, some funky news station from I dunno where. - foopirata, on 02/16/2009, -3/+14
If Israel doesn't host Arab teams on major events it is because the Arabs themselves do the boycott. Your question doesn't even make any sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Sakhnin_F.C.
Bnei Sakhnin Football Club, a mostly Israeli-Arab club, was the Israel League Champion in 2004.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/199 ...
"But if the linkage between sports and politics has declined since the 1970s, it has intensified in the international arena as the country's Arab neighbors sought to isolate the Jewish state from 1973 onwards. Ironically, this tactic backfired. For while Israel was expelled from all Asian sports' federations, it was eventually accepted into the European sports' bodies, enabling the country to compete in many of the world's most prestigious competitions such as the European Athletics Championships, the European Swimming Championships, the UEFA football cups, the European Basketball cups and all other major European tournaments." - Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -2/+12Isn't there also a wall on the Egyptian side as well? Who put that there? Why don't you condemn them? Why is it that despite the mistreatment of the Palestinan people by just about everyone in the region you only ever pick out Israel as being responsible?
- frequentFlyer, on 02/16/2009, -5/+15You could have stopped at: "You don't want to visit that country."
- jaldun, on 02/16/2009, -5/+15I don't usually write any comments, but this time I had to say that as an Arab, I must apply for visas to almost all the countries in the world and Israel is one of them, and it is the most humiliating experience you could ever have. For example, I am studying in London and I want to visit Paris, it took me three weeks to book an appointment at the embassy, three weeks to process my application and another three weeks to book another appointment to collect my visa. keep in mind that they could refuse my application and i will lose the 60£ fees as well as providing lots and lots of documents. While my German or Israeli friend can easily book a flight and travel there. I was lucky when I got a three days visa!!
I wish that no one will ever need any visa to travel, I also wish that people read some facts before start blaming and spreading hatred!! - Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -2/+12"Because Israel owns the border between Egypt and Gaza."
I suppose they also own the armed Egyptian troops who guard the border too? (try again) - Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -7/+16Q: What came first, the walls and checkpoints or the suicide bombers.
A: The suicide bombers.
It's an ugly fact that miles of walls and checkpoints managed to drop the rate of sucide bombings by an order of magnitude. Until the Palestinans decide to stop wanting to kill civilians en-masse only a moron would advocate the removal of the checkpoints.
Sure, the Israelis can and probably should remove them, but the Palestinans should also remove the reason for them to be there in the first place. - tempg, on 02/16/2009, -3/+12Race has nothing to do with this, or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, sorry, no biscuit.
- drunkenoaf, on 02/16/2009, -4/+12Dubai's not going to be considered a tenable venue for international sports events if they keep that.
Although it never is, sport is supposed to be free from politics; this decision wasn't. - Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -4/+12Considering a major proportion of Israeli citizens are Arab I really wouldn't see it as a problem. Besides, being a democracy and all it would be political suicide for any government that tried it.
- Shlufi, on 02/16/2009, -1/+8I've been to Israel twice with my cousins. The idea that it is an apartheid state is purely ridiculous; I visited my aunt in a hospital and she was attended by two Arab doctors. There is no segregation, no mandatory separation, both Jews and Arabs eat at the same restaurants, and give birth at the same hospitals. The "Apartheid State" claim is pure bullocks and any who perpetuates it is guilty of spreading misinformation.
- inactive, on 02/16/2009, -9/+16an Arab State?.
Shocker eh... - DreadPirate, on 02/16/2009, -0/+7Dzonatas - Yet another pathetically transparent attempt to blame Israel for something they have zero responsibility for. Care to explain the "reasoning" behind that claim?
- DreadPirate, on 02/16/2009, -0/+7There's a difference between "major military force" and border guards. And that article says nothing about Israel dictating whether that border can be open or closed. It discusses the reasons why Egypt would like to keep that border closed, including avoiding flooding an area of its own country with over half a million people that it cannot support. Then there's also the fact that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that is a threat to the government of Egypt.
- satyarth, on 02/16/2009, -6/+13Maybe he was talking about UAE?
- ewap8, on 02/16/2009, -1/+8Bulldogge16 is right. They can refuse entry to you at the airport immigration desk if your passport carries an Israeli stamp, despite you having a valid visa to travel to Dubai.
- Harvester1, on 02/16/2009, -6/+13I agree with most of your post, but I'm positive sultanknish was NOT referring to Israel.
- Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -6/+13"What came first? Occupation."
By Egypt and Jordan maybe (who built the camps). Gaza was 100% unoccupied at the time of the most recent war, yet Hamas were still firing rockets and sending suicide bombers. The walls will exist until the reason for them to exist disappears.
Admittedly it's a catch-22 as Hamas demand free entry into Israel and until they get it they are not going to stop killing Israelis. That's the crux of the matter. - neko6, on 02/16/2009, -2/+9I'm waiting to see if they also boycott the US athletes for killing over 1,000,000 innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
No? I wonder why... - neko6, on 02/16/2009, -3/+10"How quick are they to allow athletes from Arab nations into Israel to compete?" - automatically. Israel does not deny entry to individuals by nationality.
They might deny entry for individuals with a history of anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish violence, but such athletes wouldn't visit to begin with. - neko6, on 02/16/2009, -0/+7"Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious and political organization founded in Egypt with branches throughout the Arab world."
www.cfr.org/publication/8968/ - Aroundtown27, on 02/16/2009, -2/+8I thought they wouldn't let her get a credit card when I first read the title...
- 3nder99, on 02/16/2009, -6/+12The correct term is killed.
- dkapuchino, on 02/16/2009, -1/+7As an Israeli, I have yet been able to board a flight in a european or north american country without being thoroghly screened before.
The process of getting a tourist Visa into the US as an Israeli takes months.
Please stop feeling inferior, it has nothing to do with your religion or race. Only your nationality.
When I travelled to Laos, I had to pay less money for my Visa than European visitors, which had to pay even less then North American visitors. On the other hand, the scandanavians didn't need any visa at all. Asians didn't either.
It's all about inter-government agreements. Welcome to the real world. - Meep3D, on 02/16/2009, -3/+9http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_in_Jo ... - Wait, what?
- newsxplorer, on 02/16/2009, -4/+10i agree that it isn't right - but your comment doesn't really apply to the situation.
if israel was holding an international tennis tournament and an arab qualified to play in it, they wouldn't turn them away just because they're arab. - foopirata, on 02/16/2009, -0/+6
Iranian athletes have preferred to leave the competition instead of facing Israeli athletes. The Israelis were there. The Iranians forfeited.
You can question Israel as much as you want. As long as you're ready to accept the answer even if it disagrees with what you think, and as long as your question makes any sense.
As it is, this current one does not.
The sport boycott is Arab-sourced, not Israeli. Israel has ample Israeli-Arab participation in its sports scene. - dsfjvhbd, on 02/16/2009, -0/+5And which role did the tennis player in question play in the conflict?
- tzvika613, on 02/16/2009, -2/+8@Dzonatas - Think about your statement about sultanknish - " ... towards his homeland." Do you even realize that you are making several valuable points about Zionism ? You do not know where he is located ( hint - it may be in the US ) but you talk about Israel as his homeland. Your subconscious is realizing things that your conscious side does not yet realize. To you I say congratulations.
Stormfront - look it up yourself. It is not hard to find. Ask around in your friends list. You may find someone who can help you. - tzvika613, on 02/16/2009, -0/+5Please explain - Mr. Unblatant. Are you okay ? You should get some fresh air every now and then.
- Chirp08, on 02/16/2009, -8/+13Honestly do they realize how bad they are shooting themselves in the leg while they are down?
- tzvika613, on 02/16/2009, -0/+5Well what do you want ? You honestly do not expect Iranian swimmers to get into the same pool with Zionist-entityites do you ? God forbid ! They might get some Zionist-entityite cooties swimming up their noses and contaminating them !
- kamtsa, on 02/16/2009, -4/+9>> I wish that no one will ever need any visa to travel, I also wish that
>> people read some facts before start blaming and spreading hatred!!
Considering the Arab terror against Israel and the West, it is just natural that countries will want to make sure that you are not one of the bad guys. The Arab world is very lame in denouncing terror but is very quick in complaining about the consequences. Here is a quick reminder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrM0dAFsZ8k -
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