According to Hannah Murphy’s piece in The Guardian, sometime between April and the present, Israel has harassed/sent back American basketball players because they were coming to play in Palestinian teams.
Several American basketball players have been refused entry at Tel Aviv airport. Israeli border control has information that they are on their way to play for Palestine. Two players are detained in immigration for several days, then sent back to the US.
Read the whole article to learn the story of Murphy’s documentary Salaam Dunk, airing on Al Jazeera English this Sunday, 30 August 2009 at 2pm GMT.
Recently Stephen Walt said that he feels uneasy about and does not support the BDS movement against Israel because
I’m uncomfortable with even mild forms of collective punishment and partly because, like [Neve] Gordon himself, I do worry about the double-standard issue (i.e., if you think it’s ok to boycott Israel, why not China or Burma or any number of other countries?). And I’m especially leery of efforts to interfere with academic exchanges, because I don’t like anything that interferes with free speech or obstructs the free flow of ideas.
Right. The double standard. The one where Israel gets Western financial support and absolute diplomatic cover and upgraded trade agreements in exchange for oppressing Palestinians and blockading them and preventing basketball players from coming to play in their teams, perhaps?
