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Thursday, September 15, 2022

09/15 Links Pt2: Before criticizing Israel, US should clean up at home; U.S. Supreme Court rules Yeshiva University must recognize LGBTQ club; Israel Scores No. 1 in Digital Quality of Life Index

From Ian:

Statistics show Israel haters are wrong
Anti-Israel commentators also usually neglect to acknowledge that Palestinians have been waging a terrorist war against Israel's existence since the state's birth in 1948. Much of Palestinian suffering results from Israel defending itself against these unrelenting attacks, as well as the Palestinian refusal to accept offers of land for peace and a state of their own.

Israel is often also faulted for passage of its "nation-state law" in 2018 – which declares that the country exists to fulfill the Jewish people's "right to self-determination." This attack, however, is a red herring, attempting to discredit a statute that in no way limits Israel's democratic liberties.

Note that this law does not infringe on the rights of individual Israelis, including its two million Arab citizens. Like many other nation states, it merely formalizes symbols of its people – in this case the Jewish people – such as the flag, national anthem and holidays.

Note, too, that while the nation-state law declares Hebrew to be the national language, this is not different than in the United States, in which English is the mother tongue. Nor does Israel's nation-state law establish any official religion – unlike some seven European countries that declare state religions in their very constitutions.

All of this is to point out that Israel can be a proud nation of the Jewish people while still cherishing and implementing one of the most diverse and freest democracies on earth. In fact, some would argue that it is precisely Jewish values that fortify and help guarantee Israel's robust democracy.

In short, no matter what slanderous accusations Israel's enemies employ, the Jewish state objectively remains one of the strongest and most successful democracies on earth. Tiny Israel provides political freedoms and economic opportunities unmatched by the overwhelming majority of the world's nations.

Note finally that the suffering and political plight of the Palestinians has little to do with Israel and is in fact almost entirely the result of authoritarian governance by its terrorist dictatorial regimes and their obstinate refusal to make peace.
Before criticizing Israel, US should clean up at home
Israel has one of the highest numbers of foreign journalists per capita in the world. Many are critical, some outwardly hostile towards Israel; nevertheless, they are not banned from covering the news in Israel or the disputed territories. If Israel wanted to kill reporters who write negative things about the country, dozens would be dead. The idea that the government would intentionally target journalists is preposterous.

Imagine Israel's Foreign Ministry releasing statements calling for the United States to review its rules of engagement considering the casualties caused by its armed forces. It would never happen.

It was good to see Prime Minister Yair Lapid stand up for his nation's sovereignty by stating: "No one will dictate our open-fire policies to us when we are fighting for our lives. Our soldiers have the full backing of the government of Israel and the people of Israel." He added, "I will not allow an IDF soldier that was protecting himself from terrorist fire to be prosecuted just to receive applause from abroad."

Similarly, Gantz rightly said, "The chief of staff, and he alone determines and will continue to determine the open-fire policies, in accordance with the operational need and the values of the IDF, including the purity of arms. … There was and will be no political involvement in the matter."

Notably, in 2014, after the war in Gaza, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talked about how "Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties." The Pentagon, he said, sent a team of officers to Israel to learn lessons from the fighting, including "the measures they took to prevent civilian casualties."

The United States is Israel's most important ally. Still, America's leaders sometimes need to be reminded that Israel is a sovereign nation, as Menachem Begin did after the Reagan administration took a series of measures to punish Israel for annexing the Golan Heights. "Are we a vassal state of yours? Are we a banana republic?" he asked the US ambassador to Israel. "We have enough strength," Begin declared, "to defend our independence and to defend our rights."

Would the United States ever deign to tell Britain, Germany or France how its military should perform its duties?

No, which makes the approach towards Israel a double standard, one of the examples of anti-Semitism in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition used by the State Department.

Before Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt takes another trip abroad, she should clean up her own house.
Clifford D. May: Fascism for dummies
Fascism, Nazism and other "national socialisms," he writes, "had their roots in the 19th century and even earlier," in ideas promulgated by such philosophers as Rousseau, Hegel and Nietzsche.

The term derives from fascio, Italian for a bundle or sheath, conveying "strength through unity," the unifying force being the government and its supreme leader. As Mussolini put it: "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."

In common with communism, fascism in its diverse forms opposes liberalism, defined as "individualism and the apparently chaotic conclusions of private enterprise."

Also akin to communism, fascism has had a "passion for science" that often turns out to be pseudo-science. The Soviet Communists had Lysenkoism. Nazis believed, as Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg wrote, that "history must be judged from the point of view of race."

The poet Ezra Pound, a well-known American fascist, moved to Italy in 1924, where he wrote for publications owned by the British fascist Oswald Moseley (whose street fighters also were called Blackshirts). Pound supported Hitler's rise, including in paid radio broadcasts attacking the United States, the United Kingdom, Roosevelt, Churchill and Jews. Among the ideas he championed: "race pride."

As George Mosse notes in "Fascist Aesthetics and Society: Some Considerations," the "human body indicates the structure of the mind."

Another attribute of fascism is hyper-nationalism. The Axis powers all invaded neighbors and folded them into their expanding empires.

Neither Trump nor Biden has displayed any interest in foreign conquests, as far as I'm aware. On the contrary, I see too many Republicans and Democrats succumbing to the siren song of isolationism.

This is an opinion column and I'll close with this one: A serious argument can be made that Vladmir Putin, Xi Jinping, Ali Khamenei and Kim Jong-un exemplify 21st century varieties of fascism. Had President Biden addressed the increasing national security threats they pose, he might have helped unite us against those who hate us – Democrats and Republicans, progressives and conservatives, the woke and the unwoke. He chose not to.

I think that's because he wants to win in the worst way. And it's hard to imagine any way worse than this: slandering his political opponents as fascists while posing as a modern Mussolini in the City of Brotherly Love.


The Jews and Israel Are Still Winning, and the Haters Are Still Losing
Year after year, those who hate Jews and Israel bang their heads against the wall telling the world that Israel is the worst.

It must drive them nuts to see that after attacking Israel over so many decades, that little Jewish state has been thriving like never before.

Year after year, the BDS activists on college campuses schlep their apartheid walls and scream that "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" - and they don't get an inch closer to their goal.

More and more countries have caught on that in spite of the propaganda they hear about Israel, it's in their interest to get along with the world's only Jewish state and take advantage of Israel's extraordinary array of innovations in medical care, agriculture, cybersecurity, AI, water technology, and food security.

It has become one of the more creative and innovative societies dealing with some of the planet's most urgent issues.


U.S. Supreme Court rules Yeshiva University must recognize LGBTQ club
The United States Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that Yeshiva University must recognize, at least temporarily, a student LGBTQ club. The justices voted 5-4 to reject the school’s petition to intervene and block a New York state court’s decision demanding it recognize the club.

The Modern Orthodox university appealed to the Supreme Court late last month, citing its rights under the First Amendment, which protects freedom of religion. The university argues that recognizing the YU Pride Alliance, which would grant the club funding and other benefits, is contrary to its beliefs.

“The application is denied because it appears that applicants have at least two further avenues for expedited or interim state court relief,” the court said in its ruling, according to media reports.

If those efforts fail, the university “may return to this court,” the justices reportedly wrote in the majority decision.

By contrast, the dissenting judges wrote, “The First Amendment guarantees the right to the free exercise of religion, and if that provision means anything, it prohibits a State from enforcing its own preferred interpretation of Holy Scripture. Yet that is exactly what New York has done in this case.”


SFSU hosted Palestinian terrorist speakers at Beirut conference
Palestinian terrorists and figures associated with terrorist organizations spoke at a conference by San Francisco State University's Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies department on September 10.

The two-day conference, Memorializing the Sabra & Shatila Massacre: Bearing Witness, Resilience, & Accountability, included speakers such as a founding member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a scholar indicted in the US for involvement with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, two Palestinian-Lebanese "resistance fighters." The co-founder of a Canadian organization involved in a racism and Canadian government funding scandal also attended as a speaker.

PFLP members Salah Salah and Leila Khaled
Salah Salah, described by SFSU AMED as "one of the founders of the Arab Nationalist Movement and the PFLP," spoke on a panel alongside his wife, Samira Salah. The PFLP is listed on the US State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The last panel of the event on September 11 was set to feature Dr. Sami Al-Arian and Leila Khaled. The latter was to attend by Zoom, but there were technical difficulties. Khaled was a convicted PFLP terrorist involved in the hijacking of airplanes and holding passengers hostage. She is held as a symbol of "resistance" by supporters of Palestinian armed movements.

The panel was moderated by SFSU AMED director Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, who previously invited Khaled as a guest speaker in 2021. Controversy surrounded the SFSU event "Whose Narratives? What Free Speech for Palestine?" which was delayed when Zoom and social media platforms refused to allow their services to be used to host the panel featuring an unapologetic terrorist. Pro-Israel groups had launched a campaign against SFSU's hosting of Khaled.


CNN Publishes Gushing Interview With Palestinian Provocateur Ahed Tamimi Who Called for ‘Stabbings and Martyrdom’
Glowingly described as a “freedom fighter,” the “face of Palestinian resistance” and a “heroine,” Ahed Tamimi is perhaps one of the most recognizable Palestinians in the world.

The 21-year-old rose to prominence as a child in 2012 when footage of her slapping and kicking two Israeli soldiers who gently try to shepherd her away went viral online.

In 2017, Tamimi was jailed for eight months after she was again videoed hitting and shoving IDF soldiers near her home in the West Bank village of Nebi Saleh. Under the terms of a plea bargain, she admitted to the aggravated assault of an IDF soldier, incitement to violence and disrupting soldiers on two other occasions.

In the decade since she first went viral, Tamimi has been the subject of thousands of articles and has given countless interviews to starry-eyed journalists.

Tamimi is once again in the spotlight as she drums up publicity for her new memoir, ‘They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom,’ which tells the story of how she “came of age participating in nonviolent demonstrations against this action and the occupation at large.”

It appears Tamimi’s editors at Penguin Random House have an unusual definition of “nonviolent” considering the blurb proceeds to gush about how her “global renown reached an apex” when she was filmed slapping a soldier.

Helping Tamimi shift copies of the memoir is CNN, which has done a sit-down interview with the “activist” and her co-author, Al Jazeera journalist Dena Takruri.

The problems with the resulting piece begin with the headline, ‘This Palestinian teen went viral for slapping an Israeli soldier. Now she’s telling her own story.’

If anyone was wondering what that story is, we can skip straight to the ending: it is the same story Tamimi has told countless times before. The one where she is repeatedly filmed hitting, kicking and spitting on Israeli soldiers before eventually being arrested and jailed.

The introduction to the interview reads like the foreword to a biography of Joan of Arc:
Palestinians hailed Tamimi as a hero. Israelis called her everything from a troublemaker to a terrorist. Some in the international community positioned her as the face of a new generation taking a stand against militarism and colonialism. For Tamimi, however, it was the culmination of a lifetime of fear, anxiety and trauma.”

Note how interviewer Nadeem Muaddi juxtaposes “troublemaker” against “terrorist.” The two words — whose definitions contrast considerably — serve to paint Israel as confused. An unjust regime that throws all kinds of wild accusations at Tamimi to justify punishing her.
BBC Arabic omits relevant details on Palestinian prisoner Naser Abu Hmaid
Abu Hmaid’s attacks and their death toll were completely omitted from BBC Arabic’s report. CAMERA Arabic has submitted a complaint to the BBC on that issue.

*The Arabic word Aseer (plural Asra) means “captive”. It could also be translated as “prisoner”, but (at least outside the Palestinian context) almost always within one of the three terms “political prisoner”, “prisoner of war” and “prisoner exchange”.

The Arabic word for a properly tried and sentenced prisoner is Sajeen (سجين) which is rarely used by Arabic media outlets when discussing Palestinians and Arabs in Israeli prisons, even if they are Israeli citizens. This applies to the vast majority of outlets, except some Western-oriented ones, including the BBC. The latter tends to use Sajeen more frequently, but never exclusively; alongside the occasional Aseer, Both Mu’taqal “arrestee” and simply Filastini (فلسطيني) “Palestinian” are also prominent.

However, since Asra is often translated into English by Palestinian officials as “detainees” in order to indicate that the Israeli authorities which tried and sentenced them are illegitimate, this is the translation we use here.
Antisemitism on Twitter is on the rise, says new study
Antisemitism on Twitter has been on the rise and is more common now than before, according to a new study.

The peer-reviewed study was done by the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) and published by Springer. They said that they found that between the years 2019 and 2020, with one tweet being posted every 20 seconds, over two million of them that were about Jews or Israel were antisemitic.

"Antisemitic content was mostly related to conspiracies of Jewish global dominance, the Middle East conflict and the Holocaust," ISCA said. "We need to do more research to identify sources of antisemitic propaganda. Some of it originates in neo-Nazi groups, anti-Zionist organizations and state-sponsored activities from Iran and other countries."

Despite what Twitter had said in the past about them "cracking down on antisemitism and Holocaust denial," ISCA noted that those kinds of tweets have grown.

How many Tweets are antisemitic?
Tweets about Jews were up 11% in 2020 to 1,531,912, and during that same time period, antisemitic tweets about Jews increased to 14% of all tweets. Tweets about Israel that were rife with antisemitic beliefs were posted almost every five seconds in 2020.

"Social media has become the largest medium for antisemitic narratives, which can radicalize individuals and lead to violence," they said in the study. "Coronavirus has only exacerbated the challenge posed by hatred against Jews and antisemitic conspiracy theories."

Tracking antisemitic content on social media is challenging because of its many forms and assumed attempts to hide the content.
Facebook Bans Holocaust Film for Violating Race Policy
IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, director Joshua Newton was working on the rollout of his Holocaust movie Beautiful Blue Eyes when he received a troubling email. Peter Ruppert, a digital media buyer for the film’s distributor, MovieFarm, informed Newton that Facebook had banned the filmmakers from promoting or advertising the recently finished 2009 thriller, which marks Roy Scheider’s final performance, on its platforms. The social media giant said the film’s title, which refers to the eye color of a child who perished at the hands of the Nazis and invokes a key scene in the movie, violated its policy against content that “includes direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s race,” among other personal attributes.

Newton, the son of two Holocaust survivors who based his film on his late father’s experiences, was disgusted.

“This is the action of haters – and there are sadly many in our society – who seek to damage the film in order to trivialize the Holocaust,” Newton told Rolling Stone at the Toronto Film Festival. “Surely, Mark Zuckerberg did not intend this to happen.”

The filmmakers appealed, and Facebook upheld the ban in a brief message to Ruppert obtained by Rolling Stone. “After a requested review of your Facebook account, we confirmed it didn’t comply with our Advertising Policies or other standards,” the note read. “You can no longer advertise using Facebook Products. This is our final decision.” Advertising for the film, including trailers, was now “permanently restricted.”

Beautiful Blue Eyes centers on an NYPD cop (Scheider) who has spent decades haunted by the murder of his family during World War II. When he believes he has found the Nazi responsible for their deaths, he enlists his estranged son to help him exact revenge. It’s unclear how the film’s title violated Facebook’s race policy given that people of any race can have blue eyes. The stated rationale would presumably subject the promotion of a literary classic like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye to a similar ban.

The British director believes that the ban significantly diminished prospects for the film, which opened in 431 theaters in the U.S. on Sept. 9. “Every decent and sane human being on this planet should be alarmed by Meta-Facebook’s ban on the advertising of a Holocaust-related film,” Newton adds. “Mark Zuckerberg has created a monster that has no oversight. It’s one thing to be flagged by an algorithm. It’s another for Meta-Facebook employees to review the flag and uphold it, knowing full well that the title is not discriminatory and that the film is Holocaust-related.”
Berlin allocates an additional $1.2b. for Holocaust survivors
The German government has agreed to a compensation agreement that will provide more than $1.2 billion in 2023 for homecare and social welfare services for Holocaust survivors around the world, Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference), announced on Thursday.

The announcement was made during a ceremony at the Jewish Museum Berlin commemorating the 70th anniversary of the signing of the “Luxembourg Agreements”—the Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany. The 1952 agreements made it possible for Holocaust survivors to receive compensation payments for the Nazi persecution they faced during World War II.

Also, for the first time an agreement has been reached on Holocaust education funding of almost $10 million for 2022, close to $25 million for 2023, almost $30 million for 2024, and almost $35 million for 2025.

At the invitation of German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the Claims Conference joined Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Israel’s Minister for Social Equality Meirav Cohen and several hundred guests at Thursday’s event.


Lufthansa says will adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism after criticism
The German Lufthansa airline announced on Thursday that it would adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. The announcement took place at a special event that Lufthansa hosted in Washington DC.

“I welcome Lufthansa’s firm commitment to combating antisemitism and am especially pleased that it has adopted the IHRA definition today,” said Dr Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism.

Klein added that "for a long time I have been campaigning for as many businesses, associations, sports clubs and other groups as possible to take this definition seriously and to use it as an orientation in their activities. Not only has Lufthansa done this, but it has also installed an antisemitism officer and has introduced special training courses on antisemitism and discrimination for its staff.

"I believe these measures provide an appropriate and effective basis for preventing and combating antisemitism. I would be very glad if other German companies would follow Lufthansa’s example.”

The Working Definition of Antisemitism (also called the IHRA definition) is a non-legally binding statement on what antisemitism is, which was adopted by the IHRA Plenary with representatives from 31 countries.

The statement reads: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” Among the 11 examples of antisemitism that accompany the definition, 7 relate to Israel.
German Police Decline to Prosecute Pro-Palestinian Demonstrator Who Assaulted Elderly Jewish Man
Police in Germany have declined to pursue criminal proceedings against a Palestinian demonstrator who assaulted a Jewish man carrying an Israeli flag at a rally in the city of Hanover last April.

A spokesperson for the public prosecutor in Hanover told the Welt news outlet on Wednesday that an investigation of the attack committed by the “55-year-old stateless assailant” showed that “intentional bodily harm could not be proven.”

The incident on April 23 at a pro-Palestinian rally involved a 68-year-old former state parliamentarian for the center-left SPD Party, Michael Höntsch, who walks with the aid of both a cane and a mobile oxygen unit. Video of the event showed Höntsch, who attended a small counter protest organized by his daughter-in-law, Rebecca Seidler, being confronted by a man wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh who then punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. The Israeli flag he was holding at the time of the assault had been given to him by another demonstrator.

As The Algemeiner reported last week, Seidler — the director of the Liberal Jewish Community in Hanover — was ordered to pay a fine of 128.50 Euros (about $125) for having staged a counter-demonstration without giving the authorities advance notice.

Höntsch contrasted the fine leveled against Seidler with the decision not to prosecute his assailant in an interview with Welt.

“It is difficult to understand that the physical attack against me has no consequences while my daughter-in-law is being punished for observing a demonstration,” he said.
Jewish Man Assaulted on Berlin Subway in Fresh Antisemitic Outrage
A Jewish man has been subjected to a violent antisemitic assault while riding the subway in Berlin, marking at least the second such violent attack this week, according to local German media.

The unnamed 33-year-old had boarded a train at the Jungfernheide station in the German capital on Tuesday afternoon when he was set upon by another passenger who voiced an antisemitic insult, media outlets reported. He then grabbed the Jewish man’s arm and was pushed by his victim in response. A second passenger then appeared and joined the first man in raining punches on their victim’s head and upper body.

Another passenger intervened on behalf of the victim, who disembarked the train at the Wedding station while the two attackers continued their journey. The victim was reported to have suffered minor injuries. Police are now investigating the attack.

The latest attack came in the wake of an assault earlier this week on a rabbi who was walking through the Potsdam neighborhood in Berlin. Rabbi Ariel Kirzon, 43, who was on his way to a doctor’s visit with his 13-year-old son, was speaking on his cellphone in Hebrew when a man walked towards him, purposely bumped into his shoulder and insulted him in an antisemitic manner, Berlin police said in a statement.

“I was clearly recognizable as a Jew when suddenly an Arab-looking man insulted and attacked me,” Kirzon said. “He shouted and raised his hands, grabbed me, as if to hit me,” Kirzon recalled.

Following the incident, Kirzon filed a criminal complaint for bodily harm and insult with Berlin authorities.


Japanese Travel Agent Honored for Helping Jews in Holocaust
Israel and Japan on Monday honored Tatsuo Osako, a Japanese travel agent who helped save Jews fleeing from Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II.

Osako worked as a travel agent in the Japanese coastal city of Tsuruga between 1940 and 1941 when thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing German-occupied Europe through the Soviet Union's Vladivostok arrived at the Japanese port by ship.

During the war, he helped transport thousands of Jewish refugees to safety and distributed aid money he received from Jewish rescue organizations.
Israel Scores No. 1 in Digital Quality of Life Index
According to the fourth annual edition of the Digital Quality of Life Index, Israel has now placed first, beating out 116 other nations and overtaking Denmark after a two-year in the top spot.

Five “fundamental well-being pillars”—e-government, e-infrastructure, Internet quality, Internet affordability and e-security—were considered when compiling the report.

The United States is now ranked 12th out of 117, down from fifth last year. Most of the remaining top 10 come from Europe, though Asian powerhouses South Korea (10th) and Japan (eighth) are also there.

The affordability pillar gives Israel an advantage over everyone else due to its high affordability index.

Israel’s Internet quality—as seen by speed, stability and growth—ranks 21st globally and is 31 percent considered better than the norm. Of the five pillars, e-government is where Israel performs the lowest, ranking 33rd. E-infrastructure is ranked 28th and e-security 32nd.
Study: Tel Aviv home to 42,400 millionaires, ranking second in the Middle East
A new study released this week by Henley & Partners found that 42,400 millionaires live in Tel Aviv, or about one in ten residents.

Among them, Israel’s coastal city and primary economic engine is home to 2,260 people with a net worth over $10 million, 118 residents with more than $100 million, and 12 billionaires.

Tel Aviv placed second in terms of the richest cities in the Middle East—based on the number of millionaires—behind Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

UAE capital Abu Dhabi ranked third, Doha in Qatar fourth, and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia rounded out the top five.

Globally, New York City has the most millionaires (345,600), followed by Tokyo, the San Francisco Bay Area, London and Singapore.
Star-Studded Paris Saint-Germain Downs Maccabi Haifa 3-1 in Champions League Play
French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night defeated Maccabi Haifa 3-1 in UEFA Champions League group stage play, in a game contested at Sammy Ofer Stadium in Israel in front of more than 30,000 fans.

The Israeli team scored first on a goal by Suriname international Tjaronn Chery in the 24th minute. Haifa soon appeared to go up 2-0 when Haitian international Frantzdy Pierrot put the ball over the line, but he was called offsides.

Starting at 37 minutes into the match the French Ligue 1 title holders found the back of the net three unanswered times with tallies by Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar.

The Israeli soccer club entered the Champions League group stage for the third time in its history—and the first since 2010—after defeating Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade at Sammy Ofer Stadium last month.

The win puts PSG at the top of Group H in the European tournament on goals scored above Benfica, which won 2-1 at Juventus after beating Maccabi Haifa 2-0 last week in Lisbon.
Israeli Boy Battling Cancer Gets His Wish of Seeing Soccer Star Lionel Messi Play in Israel
A 12-year-old suffering from a cancerous tumor in his head will fulfill his dream of seeing Lionel Messi play when the Argentinian soccer legend and his team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) compete against Maccabi Haifa in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday at Israel’s Sammy Ofer Stadium.

Ilai Ron Hamarov has had surgery and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, Ynet reported. As soon as it was announced that Maccabi Haifa would play against the French soccer time, and that Messi would come to Israel for the game, Hamarov’s family and friends launched a campaign to have him see the soccer player compete in-person, according to the Israeli publication.

A close friend of Hamarov’s family then contacted Maccabi Haifa President Ya’akov Shahar, who gave the young boy and his brother two tickets to Wednesday’s match.

“It was impossible to get a ticket,” Hamarov’s brother told Ynet. “Ilai spent most of the past month in the hospital. This is a dream come true for him. And then, we got news out of nowhere. He really looked forward to it and couldn’t believe it. He is ecstatic. The moment I gave him the news he started shouting ‘Messi, Messi’ and went to watch videos of Messi in the living room.”

Their mother added, “He is very happy, excited by the whole thing. If he also manages to meet him, it will be something that cannot be described in words.”




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