[rad-green] US Athletes Kneel Down during Israel ’s National Anthem, Draw Accusations of ‘Anti -Semitism’

*http://www.palestinechronicle.com/us-athletes-kneel-down-during-israels-national-anthem-draw-accusations-of-anti-semitism-video/
<http://www.palestinechronicle.com/us-athletes-kneel-down-during-israels-national-anthem-draw-accusations-of-anti-semitism-video/>The
Palestine Chronicle          February 27, 2020*

US Athletes Kneel Down during Israel’s National Anthem, Draw Accusations of
‘Anti-Semitism’  The symbolic act by two athletes was meant as a political
protest against the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies in Palestine.

American athletes Hunnan Butt and Omar Rezika kneel down during Israel's
national anthem. (Photo: Video Grab)

*By Palestine Chronicle Staff
<http://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/palestine-chronicle-staff>*

The politically-symbolic act of two young American athletes has been dubbed
‘antisemitic’ by Israel’s supporters on social media and among the various
organizations that promote Israel’s interests in the United States.

The controversy started when two volleyball players from Brooklyn College
decided to kneel down during Israel’s national anthem, ahead of a match
against Yeshiva University.

The symbolic act by two athletes, Hunnan Butt and Omar Rezika, was meant as
a political protest against the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies
in Palestine.

The kneeling gesture is a common act of political protest in sports, made
particularly popular by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The
African-American athlete, along with many others, has repeatedly kneeled
down during the American national anthem to protest racism, police
brutality, and the mistreatment of African-Americans and other minorities
in the US.

Butt and Rezika attempted to use that form of protest as a way of raising
awareness of Israel’s racist, apartheid policies in Palestine.

Pro-Israel individuals and institutions, however, immediately dubbed the
symbolic act as one of “antisemitism” and “hatred”.

“Brooklyn College strongly condemns all forms of anti-Semitism and hatred,”
a Brooklyn College spokesman told the YU student newspaper, the Observer,
adding that “the two students who knelt during the national anthem did not
refuse to shake hands with players from the other team.”

Writing in the Palestine Chronicle, Palestinian author and journalist Ramzy
Baroud said that “while anti-Jewish racism is a real phenomenon that must
be confronted, ‘antisemitism’, as defined by Israel and its Zionist allies
.. is a smokescreen, with the ultimate aim of distracting from the real
conversation, that being the crimes of military occupation, racism, and
apartheid in Palestine.”

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