By Falastine AL- Rimawi
RAMALLAH, June 22, 2011 (WAFA) – The famous American Sports Writer, Dave Zirin,Wednesday said that there is a lot of ignorance in the United States about daily life in Palestine and there is also a belief that Arab Israelis have equal access to sports as all Israelis, “Telling the Palestinian story through Sports becomes a language that Americans can understand.”
Zirin said from Washington, during a meeting in Ramallah with a group of Palestinian sports journalists via video conference, organized by the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem that he “cannot not imagine how can a player be prevented from participating in the sport he loves for political ideas he holds.”
He denounced preventing Palestinian players from participating in champions abroad, “If there is one fundamental principle in sports, it is that the best players should be the players on the field, regardless of religion, skin color or geography. Any team that denies full participation should not be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the international community.”
“I do think that we have to acknowledge that without basic infrastructure, social justice and human rights the sports world will be very distorted,” he said.
Zirin also pointed out to how sports can be used to deflect people to other realities and how political sports in the Middle East can be, mentioning the role of Egyptian Soccer teams in the recent revolution in Egypt.
“ I believe that we play a role in making sure that for example, political athletes who are behind bars right now or soccer clubs in Egypt who become involved in the political process continue to have a voice.”
He called the sports writers in Palestine to bring their voice to the world through writing about their sufferings in various media and said, “I could help by publishing Palestinian concerns and demands in the U.S. media.'
On their part, the Palestinian journalists invited Zirin to visit Palestine to see the sports status and the sufferings of the Palestinian players due to the Israeli occupation.
Named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,” Dave Zirin is the sports editor for The Nation magazine. Zirin is a frequent guest on MSNBC, ESPN and Democracy Now! He also hosts his own weekly Sirius XM show, Edge of Sports Radio. His books include What's My Name Fool? (Haymarket Books), A People's History of Sports in the United States (the New Press), Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love (Scribner) and co-author of the forthcoming The John Carlos Story.
