Greek fans burn Israeli flag at basketball game

Fans of AEK Athens waved Palestinian and Hezbollah flags and burned an Israeli flag during a game against Hapoel Jerusalem in Athens.

The incident happened as the Greek team hosted Hapoel Jerusalem for the Gameday 9 match in the Basketball Champions League (BCL). The Greek fans also put up pictures of Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian terrorist currently in jail in Israel for deadly terror activity.

AEK’s supporters also shined laser in the eyes of the Israeli fans.

“We had heavy security protecting us,” said a Hapoel Jerusalem fan, Matan Ben-Harush. “We were surrounded by hundreds of police officers, we could see the fans of the other team tearing Hapoel flags before the game but there was no physical confrontation.”

According to Ben-Harush, during the first quarter of the game, thousands of AEK fans entered the stadium. “We could see the Greek fans getting closer to our seats, waving Palestinian flags, and carrying pictures of Barghouti, the climax was when they started burning Israeli flags.”

“We’ve notified the BCL and there is no place for these types of acts at a sport arena,” said Hapoel Jerusalem in a statement. “We are working with FIBA authorities on this matter. We want to acknowledge the 400 fans who accompanied the team to the game.” BCL said it will launch disciplinary proceedings against AEK Athens regarding the incident.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, the country’s EJC affiliate, qualified this incident as ‘a reprehensible action’ and expressed the repugnance of the Greek Jewry for this hideous act along with its belief that such attitudes are condemned by the Greek people as a whole, whether in or out of the sports stadiums.

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