The Temple Mount and the Tallit

Here:

That appears to me a Jewish man accompanying MK Moshe Feiglin this past Sunday and he is wearing a tallit, the ritual prayer shawl.

Now, that is news.

P.S.  Normally, all outward symbols of Jewishness with religious significance, except a kippah, are prohibited from view or use including tefillin, siddurim, etc.

Muslims can play soccer, though:

P.P.S.  A video clip of the travails of Jews at the Temple Mount. ^

Is This The Football Pitch in Mandate Jerusalem?

The great "Picture-A-Day" blog deals with soccer today, and Sabbath desecration tensions.

I think this may be the pitch to which he's referring:

This Hebrew reference notes that the field was home to first the British Police (so maybe mentions it) and four other teams.

Maybe Douglas Duff mentions it in his books -

1. Sword for Hire. The saga of a modern free-companion, etc. 1934.
2. Galilee Galloper. [A biography of Edwin G. Bryant, known as “Abu George,” formerly superintendent of the prison at Acre.] 1935.
3. Hammer of Allah. 1936.
4. The Horned Crescent. 1936
5. Palestine Unveiled, seemingly a reissued book or collection of the above four books.


P.S.

This article also contains relevant information, including:

The British Mandate warned about the expansion of the national tendencies of the social athletic clubs, Filastin in April 1921 published this excerpt:

Last Saturday was the inauguration of the cornerstone of the Sports Club in Jerusalem. The Palestine Weekly mentioned that Mr. Stores, the Governor of Jerusalem, insisted on the participation of everyone regardless of his religion or beliefs.

and this:

Sport was used as a cover for paramilitary activities especially by the Betar organization. Under the title (Jabotinsky’s Program: “Shooting” a Jewish army was initiated under the cover of clubs). Filastin published a translated article from the newspaper Ha-Mishkov that talked about the question of Palestine, It was argued in the article that establishing a military unit was difficult in the circumstances but imperative and sport clubs for youth could serve as a venue for military training.19

During that period, Filastin published a number of articles about Maccabi and Hapoel clubs, including accounts of their trips to Syria and Lebanon which indicated that the goals of these trips were to sustain the relationship between the organizations in these three countries.20

One of these articles under the title “ Insulting the Zionist Flag” described an incident when the Hapoel Club won a football match in Damascus. Its fans were carrying the Zionist flags and singing their national songs. This display provoked the Arab crowd and a fight broke out during which the Arab fans tore the Zionist flag.21 Also, some news was published about skirmishes between Jewish and Arab fans during the matches because of the bias of the referees.22 Most of this news carried a nationalistic undertone and aimed to reveal the rejection toward the Zionist project and its policies towards Palestine.

Starting in the 1920’s, Jewish clubs in Europe and the region began to come to Palestine to compete with Jewish clubs. They flew flags that resembled the Zionist flag, a provocation that local Arabs vigorously protested against to the British authorities. The executive committee of the Muslim and Christian Association sent the High Commissioner for Palestine protested against the flying of the Zionist flag at a football match held in Jerusalem on January 12, 1925, asking whether the ordinance regulating the flying of flags issued by the Government of Palestine in August 1920, had been abrogated.23

Another source.


^

Dan Adler Out of Betar Soccer Deal

You'll recall that I expressed wonderment that Dan Adler purchased the Jerusalem Betar soccer club.

And today, news.

This report (in Hebrew) informs us the deal has fallen through.  $400,000 have not been transferred.

^

"Palestinian" Violence - Against Jordan in the Shadow of Israel's Avigdor Lieberman

UPI reports:-

Some 250 people were injured in violence after a soccer match in the Jordanian capital of Amman, officials said.  The incident began in the final minutes of a game between the Bedouin-backed al-Feisali team and the Palestinian-based al-Wehdat squad, when fans in the upper decks of the stadium began throwing bottles down into the crowd Friday night, the BBC said.

Why did they throw missiles?
 
Well, here's the Al-Jazeera report:
 


But it is Jamal Halaby, of the Associated Press, who provides us the reality:

...There is a long history of violence between supporters of the two teams, stemming in part from the decades of tension with Jordan's large Palestinian population, which includes an estimated 1.8 million refugees displaced after Israel's 1948 creation and their descendants. Most of Faisali's players and fans are from native Jordanian Bedouin tribes. Most of Wehdat's players and fans are Palestinian.

Although most of Jordan's Palestinians - excluding natives of the Gaza Strip - carry Jordanian passports and enjoy citizenship rights unmatched by other Arab host governments, many of them complain that they are barred from taking up security and army posts or holding other top positions in the Jordanian government.

Native Jordanians feel the Palestinian refugees have no allegiance to the country.

In a match last year between the same teams, Faisali fans chanted slogans deriding the Palestinian origin of King Abdullah II's wife, Queen Rania, and their son Crown Prince Hussein - an episode that even got a mention in one of the U.S. diplomatic memos released by the WikiLeaks website.

No allegiance? Hello, that resonates with Avigdor Lieberman's platform.

^

World Cup Item: Islam and The Ball

The soccer players who are Muslim in the World Cup are to be congratulated.

They have won out over radical, fundamentalist Islamism.

If you go here, you'll learn that

On August 25, 2005, anonymous radical Islamist clerics published in the Saudi daily newspaper al-Watan, an anti-soccer fatwa (ruling)...The fatwa declared that soccer is permissible to play only when its rules are different from the accepted international rules. The ruling is based on a hadith (prophetic tradition) which forbids Muslims to imitate Christians and Jews...one should "not set the number [of players] according to the number of players used by the non-believers", and thus, only a larger or smaller number than eleven players can play together...

There's more there.



(Kippah tip: BC)


- - -

A Righteous Among the Gentiles

Comments made by Ricardo Carvalho:

The Chelsea defender condemned the club for the “cruel” sacking of Avram Grant as manager, two days after their Champions League final defeat to Manchester United on penalties. The 30-year-old had intended to ask for a transfer after Grant’s dismissal, but changed his mind after the appointment of Scolari.

“Avram did a great job, but they still decided to sack him,” Carvalho said. “Yet after Jose Mourinho left, he picked up the team and got good results. In the Champions League he was only one penalty from winning it. It was very cruel. It was very ruthless.

Avram Grant Experiences Judaism - the Wrong Way

The Chelsea chairman, Bruce Buck, has attacked a minority element of the club's support for anti-semitic abuse of the new manager, Avram Grant.

The Israeli's appointment after Jose Mourinho's departure from Stamford Bridge has provoked strong feeling but Buck said some of the comment which the club had received crossed the boundaries of acceptability.

"We welcome all constructive points of view," Buck wrote in Saturday's match programme for the visit of Fulham. "But there have been a few which could be viewed as racist and anti-semitic and that must stop immediately. This is one thing we will not tolerate whether in written correspondence, on the chat pages, on posters or banners or through singing and chanting. And it unfairly smears the reputation of the vast majority of Chelsea fans who rightly do not want to be associated with such activity."

Chelsea & Avram Grant

"Avram Grant is going to be as welcome as Camilla at Diana's memorial.

"This guy is not well-loved at Chelsea. He is not going to last."

Source.

The question really is: will there be a rise in antisemtic threats, curses and insults or worse? The previous manager was a foreigner so that can't be a factor. And Grant hasn't be given a chance to win or lose yet.

We'll wait.

I Know Someone Who Needs a Real 'Swift Kick'

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) urges the Football Association (FA), the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to take appropriate measures to suspend the national Israeli football team from all international fixtures until the state of Israel entirely complies with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions to end Israeli occupation. This should include a suspension of the Israeli team from the current Euro 2008 qualifiers.

...The Palestine Solidarity Campaign calls for UEFA, FIFA and the FA to take immediate action to end the Israeli national team's participation in Euro 2008. To continue normal relations with Israeli national sports teams is tantamount to an acceptance of the Israeli state's crimes against the Palestinian people. A ban on Israeli participation would send a clear message that Israeli apartheid and occupation, like all other forms of racism, are not welcome in international football.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign
Jews for Boycott of Israeli Goods
Friends of Al Aqsa UK

Source