Europe: Major U.S. Jewish group accuses popular soccer website of ‘Inciting Jew-hatred’

Sadly and typically none of the hundreds of Jewish organisations in Europe reported this site located in London.  They just don't see the point.  Once again, it took an American Jewish organisation to raise the matter.  The UEFA President, Michel Platini, is French.

The Algemeiner reports:

Major Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center on Monday sharply criticized popular soccer news site Goal.com for “denying the legitimacy of Israel and inciting to Jew-hatred” in its Arabic language versions, The Algemeiner has learned.

In a sharp letter to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the Center’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, drew attention to articles on the site that refer to Israel as the “Zionist entity” or an “enemy,” and accuse the Jewish state of “occupation.” One report about Israel’s defeat in a match said “this is the first Zionist loss in the play-offs” while another article mentioned Wales “defeating the Zionist entity team of the City of Haifa in the occupied territories.”

In the letter, addressed to UEFA President Michel Platini, Samuels said, ‘Zionist entity’ is deemed as denying the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the very right to sovereignty of the Jewish people.” He added, “calling Haifa, Tel Aviv and Beersheba occupied territories, in effect deletes all of Israel from the map.”

One particularly offensive article on Goal.com celebrated how the “occupied Palestinian territories Zionist teams, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Beersheba” were unable to play in the summer of 2014 due to “Palestinian Hamas shelling.” One story noted that Bosnian player Edin Dzeko would not participate in the Euro 2016 qualifier against “the Zionist enemy” in the “Arab city of Jerusalem.”

The website boosts a “global constituency” of 64 million fans, Samuels noted in his letter. More.