Greek audience burns Israeli flag, raises Palestine flag in match against Israeli team

The fans of the Greek “AEK Athens” team burned the flag of the occupation during the confrontation with the Israeli club “Hapoel Jerusalem” during the semi-final match of the European Basketball Champions League in the “Ano Leuzia” Olympic Hall, on Wednesday.

The Greek basketball team’s fans fired fireworks and threw rubbish at the “Hapoel Jerusalem” club fans, and the Greek club’s fans burned the Israeli flag, while raising the Palestinian flag in the stands.

Israeli media claimed that the Greek fans tried to storm the places of encouragement of the Israeli team more than once, while the match referees and security officials considered the possibility of stopping the match, but they gave up on that for fear that the decision would lead to further deterioration, to the extent of the occurrence of “violent fighting”. According to what was attributed to the team.

Indeed, the match was stopped twice during the first half and the second half was delayed, before the continuation of the match, in which the Greek team won 94-78.

Sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the occupation told the Israeli channel “iNews 24” that the Israeli embassy in Athens was in contact with the Greek police, to ensure the protection of the Israeli fans.

One of the fans of the Israeli club says that since the start of the match, they were met with laser lights directed at them by the fans of the Greek club, and at some point, the opposing fans tried to storm their stands.

The Israeli channel stated that the fans of the “Hapoel Jerusalem” club also fired flares that were in their possession.

The Israeli club issued a statement describing the incident as “nothing less than a terrorist attack” against its fans.

This is not the first time that the Israeli flag has been burned in a basketball match in the capital, Athens, as Greek fans burned the Israeli flag, and raised the Palestinian and pictures of the captive Marwan Barghouti, during the basketball match in December 2019.