You decide:
KUNA, May 10: Palestinians have launched an international football tournament to the mark the Nakba, or catastrophe, with participation of national teams from Palestine, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Saturday.You remember the annual Auschwitz soccer tournaments? The Armenian Genocide basketball championships? The 2004 Tsunami cricket matches? The Bhopal disaster Bollywood movie festival?
The Palestinians commemorates the Nakba every year to remember the year 1948 when the Palestinian people were expelled from their homes by the Israeli occupying forces.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah inaugurated the tournament, held at Dora International Stadium in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil, and said the championship, dubbed "Al-Nakba," was a message of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
He said the tournament "is a very important mean to strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people by informing countries around the world about the suffering of the Palestinian human being." President of the Palestinian football federation Jebril Al-Rujoub said the Palestinian people were marking the Nakba through a sport event despite the obstacles placed by the Israeli occupation authorities.
He said Israel banned five Jordanian players from entering Palestine, banned the coach of Pakistan and the entire Iraqi team from the event.
If the Nakba was truly a human catastrophe, the very idea of a Nakba football tournament would be beyond tasteless.
As it stands, Arabic readers see sports reporters writing things like "Jordan's team reaches the Nakba finals."
I'm not seeing anyone protesting, though.
In real sports news, Maccabi Tel Aviv finished its Cinderella run to win the Euroleague basketball championship.