Volleyball Special Report: Turkish Protest against the Israeli Volleyball team
The great combat of Women’s European Volleyball League took place at Ankara, Turkey this year. A total of 20 teams battled for the triumph including Israel and Turkey. Serbia, the defending champion took the lead and seized the gold in their possession for a consecutive year. Turkey could only make to the third place and won the bronze by defeating their utmost rival Israel.
Taking full advantage of the opportunity, the Pro-Palestinians staged a protest against the ferocious attack of Israeli Army on Flotilla late last month. The protestors gathered near the venue, where Israeli Women’s Volleyball team played on the 24th July, 2010. Israel took on Serbia on that particular day but lost the match anyway.
However, Turkish government made the first-rate arrangement for the women’s league matches and paid a lot of attention to the security concerns. The government ensured the safety of all the players and especially took care of the Israeli team, which associated the potential risk of being harmed by the angry inhabitants.
The security officials put a lot of efforts to avoid any un-pleasant occurrence during the match. A heavy number of police-men were dispatched to block the roads around the match venue. Besides the Turkish police, Israeli security officials were also there to guard the players.
A bus with tinted glass windows was used for the transportation of players which safely carried the team to the indoor stadium. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of spectators in the stadium on account of security concern. Only a few Israeli flags were in evidence in the stands, which were also tucked away after a short time. The stadium was almost empty and missing the crowd.
The scarcity of supports can also be considered as one factor of low morale of Israeli team which led them to a bad performance. The Israeli players lost the game in the hands of Serbian team which defeated them with a score of 0-3.
The Turkish activists gathered two blocks away from the stadium, as the security officials didn’t let them go near the spot in order to protect the players from any trouble. The protestors carried different play-cards and posters bearing the images of whom that lost their lives in the attack at Flotilla. The demonstrators raised slogans against the inhuman act of Israel.
The protestors were all harsh in their tone and obviously not happy about the presence of Israeli team in their country. Reportedly one of the protestors, Hanif Sinan, a landscape architect said, “Why kill and come here to play?
Nonetheless, police officials did a great job in pushing the protestors away from the match venue and in doing so; they even had to use the shields of reinforced plastic. Around 100 protestors were involved in the activity and they attacked the police officials with the poles of their Palestinian flags and also lobbed water bottles at them. Some of the demonstrators grumbled at police and said that God will hold you to account. Anyhow, the police tackled the situation in a sensible manner and managed to keep them away.
According to the media information, a lot of email messages were exchanged among different people to urge them to attend the match in order to protest against Israel. They were advised to hide the Palestinian flags and banners in order to get entry to the hall. Then they planned to shout slogans after entering the hall. Somehow, the authorities were aware of the fact and barred the entry of any potential trouble-makers in the hall.
A local columnist regretted that more people should have come to attend the volleyball protest. Somehow, he said that the players are guests and they shouldn’t be harmed but the Turkish people always have a right to protest.
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