Tiktukno: summary of the day's events in sports, 30.11 (Sport1)
If in the past Israeli soccer fans chose national teams to support based on their actions in World War II, this time it was a more recent choice: on the one hand, the USA, our loyal and supportive friend, and on the other, Iran, the enemy that threatens to destroy us. On the one hand, the country that gave birth to Beyoncé, Steph Curry And Seinfeld and defends us in the UN, and on the other hand the one who supports terrorists and Hamas and invests all her wealth and teaches nuclear weapons and the axis of evil.
Not only is the choice easy and natural, but for the first time in the World Cup we were emotionally involved: we have a derby here!
Very quickly their fight on the field became for the Israeli viewer a symbolic battle: who is stronger?
At the moment of truth, can we trust the Americans, who will know how to win in this difficult confrontation?
Will they be able to adapt to the hostile and unique atmosphere in the Middle East, with 40 thousand Iranians in the stands?
At some point the US team looked naive, easy prey. As if the conditions were against her, because she is not skilled in the local rules (soccer). The fear was that she was too nice and innocent, that they would be able to work on her, sting her in the 90th minute. It seemed that she was going to absorb the The tie, but the USA held until the end, won, advanced to the next stage and sent Iran home.
Our friends, our brothers, we haven't been proud of you like this for a long time.
For a brief moment we experienced a sense of security, and faith in the rightness of the way.
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Our friends, our brothers, we haven't been proud of you like this for a long time.
The USA is celebrating (Photo: Reuters)
After the final whistle, a young fan approaches me with slow and hesitant steps, making sure that it is a journalist.
On her head is a curly wig with the colors of the US flag, blue-white-red, on her face is painted the stars and stripes flag of the USA, but next to her is her mother, whose face is painted with the colors and symbols of Iran.
what is going on here
"I'm Iranian, but I cheered for the USA today, and it's important to me that my voice be heard, are you willing to help me?" she asked. Definitely.
Her name is Aileen. 16 years old. High school student. Came to the World Cup with her family from Iran. Not ready to take a picture, no To reveal her face, not to say her full name. She speaks with a trembling voice, constantly looking to the sides with concern. "It hurts me that I am against my country, but I was for the United States, I wanted us to lose," she says.
According to her, "I do not support the Iranian flag, because Iran does not support me. I do not support my team and my players, because they do not support me. These players do not represent me. They do not support the Iranian people. They betray the Iranian people. They do not voice the Their voice, not our voice. They don't go against what is happening in Iran. The people there are fighting for human rights, for justice, and these actors... they are just broadcasting that everything is fine. They are not just silent. They are helping the administration to show that everything is normal."
She is upset, stops for a moment, takes a long breath, and continues.
"The government in Iran, the police in Iran, they kill people. They don't let us talk. I can't show my face, because they won't let me go back. We don't have a normal life there."
But the players protested, and didn't sing the national anthem in the first game, didn't they?
"It was fake," she says, "the fact is that in the games that followed, they did sing the national anthem. But what does it matter? Before the tournament, they went to the president of Iran, visited him, thanked him, shook his hands, and this is the president who murders his own citizens."
She gets excited, vents, tries to illustrate the depth of the crisis.
"People think that the protests are only about the hijab, but it is much more than that," she says, "the problems are deeper. There is poverty, there is fear in the streets, people feel that the state is betraying them, that it prevents them from being free and happy."
I nod in understanding.
"Did you write everything? It's important."
Yes, I promise.
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"The players don't just stay silent. They help the administration show that everything is normal."
Eileen (photo: Walla! system, Paz Hasdai)
Scary here
After the game it was possible to sense what exactly Eileen was talking about.
Indeed, Qatar, but the principle is the same: gagging.
It was at the end of Iran's loss, when some of its fans rioted and were detained by the police.
Urging, yelling, nothing unusual, but then police officers approached the journalists and photographers in a threatening manner and ordered: "No photography!".
Why?
Just not allowed.
Go argue.
And it doesn't end there.
One of the police officers even demanded the phones of some of the journalists, and ordered them to go through the videos on the device with him, and to delete what he had taken.
Some refused, some surrendered out of fear and pressure, some managed to slip aside (your faithful servant).
This incident, it is important to note, is not related to the arrests that took place on the other side of the stadium, where demonstrators against the Iranian regime were detained by the police.
The Qatari police did not arrest those who tried to attack them.
The ones you recorded, yes indeed.
A Danish journalist reported: "I was detained by the police because I took pictures of protesters against the Iranian government being attacked by supporters of the regime. Then I was released, after I was asked to delete the pictures. Of course I refused."
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These are unpleasant moments, of insecurity.
A feeling that there is no one to trust, and no one to protect you.
Iran or Qatar, it doesn't matter.
It is doubtful whether this is the official policy of the Doha police in a tournament with an international resonance like the World Cup, but the officers acted according to the initial instinct: to delete the images.
prevent advertising.
silence.
Like the incident that happened even before the opening of the tournament, when a team from Denmark was filming in the streets of the city, and suddenly two Qataris arrived on a motorcycle and tried to stop the filming.
Why?
So.
This is the default of totalitarian rule: only we decide what the people know.
So when there is an opportunity to cry out to the world, and the team misses it, Eileen is glad that these traitors lost.
In those moments, when football felt neglected, it was a reminder of another betrayal - by FIFA of the fans of the game. Because here, for example, is an Israeli journalist, fulfilling a dream, watching dozens of games from the most prestigious tournament in the world, up to historic moments and fine football, and instead of being elated at every moment - only I want to go home safely already. At least on the field, for a brief moment, justice prevailed.
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