On July 24th, 2014, during renewed Israeli attacks on Palestine, a pre-season friendly soccer match in Austria between Israeli team Maccabi Haifa and French team Lille had to be abandoned in the 86th minute after pro-Palestinian protesters ran onto the pitch waving Palestinian flags and shouting "Free Palestine!"
A fight ensued between some of the soccer players, the protesters, and security personnel. The event made international news, and the protesters were roundly accused of "violently attacking the players" and of "being anti-Semitic" - with Israel again cast in the role of the victim.
On closer examination of the available video footage (see video analysis below), we see a rather different picture. Four protesters ran across the field, but clearly didn't have violence in mind. All they seemed to want to do was get a message across by reminding people that Apartheid Israel is currently engaged in war crimes. Frankly, Austria should be censured for hosting an Israeli sports team in its country at this time. Whatever happened to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions?
Some say Israeli sports, music, academia and other cultural activities shouldn't be lumped together with the Israeli state's actions. Too bad. If they choose to be associated with that ZioNazi entity, they must accept pariah status and face the consequences of international opprobrium.
Contrary to what the mainstream media claimed, the first 'violent act',
which started the fight, was carried out by an Israeli player, who brought one of the protesters to the ground.
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