NEW YORK (VINnews) — Israeli basketball fans who travelled to the Spanish city of Bilbao to support the Hapoel Holon team playing there, were attacked by people waving Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Israel epithets. In response, the Israelis unfurled Israeli flags, sang Hatikva and responded by tearing down the Palestinian flags and burning them. The two sides then began a street fight, throwing chairs and other objects at one another. There were no reports of injuries in the incident.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The people with Palestinian flags were apparently locals who sympathize with the Palestinian cause but the Israelis were incensed at the attempt to utilize their presence for political purposes and tore the flags. Local sources claimed that the Israeli supporters instigated the response by tearing down Palestinian flags at a local pub.
BREAKING: Palestinians attack a group of Hapoel Holon Basketball Fans in Bilbao city in Spain. Which has sparked a confrontation. pic.twitter.com/uFsRCJyw2V
— Eretz Israel (@EretzIsrael) May 8, 2022
Hapoel Holon was in Bilbao to compete in the consolation game of the international basketball championship. It lost 88-68, to MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, which took third place.
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein tweeted that he was “appalled by the manifestations of violence suffered by Hapoel Holon fans from the gangs of supporters of Palestinian terrorism in Bilbao.”
Edelstein called for the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and Spanish authorities to recognize the attacks as anti-semitism and do more to protect visiting Israeli fans.
Good to see the Jews fighting back.
Israel should not play in such a league, and shouldn’t have fans traveling to games like that. That is an eisek for other nations, not G-d’s chosen people, who have better things to do with their time.
Spain, Egypt, and the Eastern European “friends” of the Jews. When will we learn that our money is the only thing that makes us in their eyes.
This ain’t 1492 you Spanish pork eating shkutzim!