Barcelona Denies Palau Blaugrana to Hapoel Jerusalem | Basketball News

FC Barcelona will not give up the Palau Blaugrana to the Israeli team Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem for their morning training session on Wednesday, October 15, prior to the match on the third day of the Eurocup against Baxi Manresa at the Nou Congost, according to RAC1. The Barça club’s decision not to respond to Hapoel’s request responds to logistical and public order reasons as a result of the context of tension due to the presence of Israeli teams in sports competitions during the war in Gaza. The Permanent Commission of the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sports has declared the match high risk, and has urged the club, as organizer, to “carry out the relevant actions to reinforce security measures.”

Several Baxi Manresa fan clubs and animation groups have made a statement calling for the suspension of the confrontation between the Catalan club and the Israeli club. “We firmly believe that basketball cannot live in a bubble outside the reality that surrounds us. We consider the presence of an Israeli team in our home to be absolutely unacceptable while the state of Israel carries out a genocide. Our message is clear and forceful: human lives are of infinitely greater importance than any sporting event,” groups of fans signed in a note on social networks a few weeks ago.

A refusal and situation that adds to the atmosphere of tension due to the visits of Israeli teams to Spain soon. On the same Wednesday, October 15, Valencia Basket receives Hapoel Tel Aviv at home in the fourth round of the Euroleague. The Palestinian support movement BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – asked to cancel the meeting between both clubs in an open letter, in addition to the notice of a call for mobilization that coincides with the match.

One day before, on October 14, La Laguna Tenerife faces the Israeli Bnei Herzliya in the Basketball Champions League (BCL). A few weeks ago Podemos Canarias also demanded the suspension of the match, in addition to the expulsion of the Israeli team from the competition, considering that its presence “normalizes complicity with a genocidal State.” The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez (PSOE), has asked the Higher Sports Council (CSD) and other institutions to also suspend the match in the Santiago Martín pavilion.