Israel

Recent events in Amsterdam have reminded folks that sports and politics are inseparable. But, it’s not the only such recent sports story, and not even the only one involving Israel and football.

Tonight Israel is playing against Belgium (as part of the Nations League, not to be confused with the League of Nations) … in Hungary. Why is the game taking place in Hungary? Well, UEFA (the folks in charge of football in Europe (why Israel is part of Europe for the sake of football is a whole other post)) decided back on October 19, 2023 that “After a thorough evaluation of the current safety and security situation in the whole territory of Israel […] that no UEFA competition matches shall be played in Israel until further notice.”¹ Which makes some sense, except when you remember that Russia and Russian teams were outright banned from all competitions in 2022². But fine, no one expects UEFA to know anything about ethics.

Because of UEFA's decision Israel has had to play all of their “home” games in neutral venues, in this case in Hungary. While unusual this isn't entirely unheard of. Ukraine has been playing their “home” games at various stadiums in Poland since 2022³ and the last time Palestine played a “home” game in Palestine was 2019⁴! And there are a few other examples not related to ongoing conflicts, like Kosovo in 2018 and Turkey in 2005⁵. So it's a thing, just not a super common thing.

But that still doesn’t answer: why Hungary of all places?

The first “home” game Israel played in Hungary on November 15, 2023 (vs. Switzerland, 1–1) was held at the Pancho Aréna in Felcsút. The Pancho Aréna opened in 2014 and can host 3,865 spectators. Felcsút has a population of 1,688. Felcsút also happens to be the home town of Viktor Orbán (the far right strong man “Prime Minister”) and a bit of a pet project for him. And that basically sets the tone for this whole story. There are really two parts to this: first there is Orbán’s interest in sports-washing in general, and obsession with football in particular; and second, there is Orbán’s relationship to Bibi/Israel/Jews and how it reflects the broader far right strong man constellation of our time.

The first part of this story is fairly straightforward. Like so many other authoritarian regimes, Orbán loves to bask himself in the “apolitical” goodwill glow of hosting large sporting events. In addition to graciously stepping in to host large international sporting events, Hungary has also seen an intense football stadium building spree. In the last decade nearly 2.5 billion euros were spent on stadiums⁶, with a fair chunk of that likely siphoned off to corrupt Orbán friendly oligarchs on at least 19 new stadiums plus renovations and upgrades of many others⁷. That's a lot!

The pinnacle of Orbán's efforts came in 2020 and 2021 with, yes, Covid. First the 2020 UEFA Super Cup final was moved from Porto to Budapest, and held with some restrictions (this was pre-vaccines, when no one else was holding such large events). And then during the 2020 Euros (held in 2021) the games in Budapest were the only ones to allow 100% attendance and had no restrictions. Because … what else do you expect from a far right strong man? It's the perfect mix of sports washing, populism, mass spectacle, anti-science/“elites”.

The second part is slightly less straightforward. Orbán and Bibi are good friends the way only two far right strong men can be friends. Hungary is also providing the neutral “home” venue for Belarus’ games. But, since this is Israel we're talking about, this isn't just about a shared ideology and world view. Orbán has insisted that Hungary is the safest country in Europe for Jews⁸. Then again, he has also spoken against race mixing, downplayed Hungary’s relationship to Nazi Germany, and promoted George Soros conspiracy theories^{9 10}. It’s not actually surprising that a far right anti-immigrant strong man is also basically anti-semitic. What might be surprising (but shouldn't be by now) is his love of Israel. When Orbán speaks of combating anti-semitism in Hungary what he means is banning pro-Palestinian activity and leaning into Islamophobia more generally¹¹. This is the direct parallel of the U.S. evangelical support of Israel. Essentially, Jews are fine, as long as they go live in Israel, help bash Muslism, and no one forgets that they aren't really part of Us (Hungary/American/whatever). A well trodden story, but it's still important to elucidate and call out the bullshit here.

The upshot of all that is that Orbán is extremely happy to come to Israel’s aid, and at the same time Israel is more than happy to legitimize Orbán and his football nonsense.

That civilians are being killed at an alarming rate in Gaza shouldn't be news to anyone. I suspect that for many this falls somewhere on the range from "civilians die in war, regrettably but inevitable" to "maybe Israel is being a bit careless, but who can blame them; Hamas is evil" extending at most to "Israel is being reckless, and I wish they would dial it back a bit". But none of that actually fully faces the depravity what is going on.

There is mounting evidence that Israel is engaged in a concerted strategy of mass starvation and destruction of civilian infrastructure in northern Gaza. I know that sounds too extreme to be real. It's tough to sound sane when the world is crazy. But this isn't my weird extremist anti-Zionist hyperbole. I have receipts.

The U.S. government has raised concerns about the restriction of aid, targeting of humanitarian workers, and destruction of civilian infrastructure multiple times. For example, in a May 20th report to congress¹ the U.S. State Department detailed both the purposeful restriction of aid and the repeated targeting of humanitarian workers. And last week the State Department sent a letter demanding that Israel stop impeding aid in to Gaza and show, with actions on the ground, that “there is no policy of starvation.”²

Multiple UN agencies (UNRWA, OCHA, UNICEF, etc.) have repeatedly raised the alarm³ and specifically pointed the finger at Israel for denying access. On October 11th the UN reported that aid into Gaza is at an all time low⁴ and essentially nothing is entering northern Gaza right now. And the UN investigator on food security has explicitly stated in his report that “There is clear evidence that Israeli officials have used starvation both as a war crime and as a crime against humanity.”⁵

NGOs and aid groups on the ground keep saying the same thing. Human Rights Watch: “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime⁶.” Oxfam: “A safe humanitarian response that meets the overwhelming needs of the people in Gaza has been made impossible by the actions of the Israeli Government⁷.” Plus all of the daily reports online from workers on the ground giving example after example.

And lastly, the International Criminal Court's prosecutor has filed charges⁸ against Bibi and Gallant alleging a purposeful strategy of mass starvation. They convened an outside panel of experts, who agreed that “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant formed a common plan, together with others, to jointly perpetrate the crime of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare⁹.”

The details of all these various reports are damning. It's not just that Israel isn't allowing trucks to cross checkpoints. They also detail how humanitarian workers have been repeatedly targeted, repair of civil infrastructure (like water supplies) has been impeded, and in general how the IDF has made the situation hostile for anyone trying to supply essential aid.

That the flow of food and supplies into the area is being intentionally restricted is an incontrovertible fact. That this amounts to sadistic and purposeful collective punishment of the civilian population would take more mental gymnastics to deny than I have the flexibility for. Whether it is also an attempt at ethnic cleansing to clear the area of Palestinians permanently for future Israeli settlement is maybe a matter of debate … for now.

At the moment, the government of Israel has denied that this is their goal. But, there are (loud) voices in Israel who, at the very least, are hoping that it becomes the de facto policy. They held a conference about it back in January¹⁰ and again last week¹¹. Politicians including members of Bibi's party and ministers in the current government, attended both openly. They raised a banner that read “Only transfer will bring peace.”¹² The National Security Minister said that Israel should “encourage emigration”¹¹ and the Finance Minister said “God willing, we will settle and we will be victorious.”¹³

This is a bit analogous to Project 2025. Trump didn't write it. But the folks behind Project 2025 are close associates and it no one is naive enough to take his lack of explicit endorsement as anything more than a halfhearted smoke screen.

Still, even if you want to waffle on the ethnic cleansing and resettlement, the mass starvation of civilians as collective punishment is not only blatantly illegal under international law but morally depraved.

And all of that is just one of the ways that Israel's behavior right now is going beyond "we're really bad at avoiding civilian casualties". The torture and abuse at the Sdei Teman Detention center appears to be at Abu Ghraib levels, if not worse¹⁴. Both the New York Times and Guardian have reported on how the IDF “uses Palestinians as human shields in Gaza.”^{15 16} And we haven't even started talking about Lebanon or the West Bank or the repeated targeting of hospitals and first responders¹⁷.

I know there is a lot of shit going on in the world. Oppression Olympics is a hopeless game and internet lefties tend to make everything sound like the end of the world. But there really is some next level horror going on here that goes beyond the usual “bad stuff happens in war”.

Do you all remember Shireen? Journalist. US citizen. Killed in 2022 by the IDF. When I say killed by the IDF that isn't speculation or insinuation. She was shot by an IDF sniper while where a blue press vest. When news of her death first came out Israel said: It wasn't us. "We weren't even in the area. It must have been Palestinian militants". Then they said "Ok, so maybe we were in the area, but we don't think we shot her. The Palestinian militants were shooting at us, so it was probably them." And finally they fell back to "Maybe we shot her while returning fire or something but we didn't know who she was." However, separate investigations from CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times all established that there had been no Palestinian gunfire prior, that Shireen was standing with a group of other journalists and wearing a clearly marked blue press vest, and her wounds were consistent with being shot by an IDF sniper (whose presence nearby has been admitted to by the IDF).

This is what I mean when you should trust the IDF as much as you trust the cops after they kill someone. Both come out, leaning on their authority, insisting you have to take their version of events at face value. Both delegitimize the other with: they were probably armed, a thug, not so innocent past, gang member, terrorist… None of these are offered as serious justifications, let alone with any evidence. Their real purpose is to dehumanize the other just enough so they are no longer a human whose story is worth listening to. It's about who gets the benefit of the doubt. When there are confusing conflicting stories cops in uniform get the benefit of the doubt. Black men don't. The IDF does. Palestinians don't. But we know that cops lie and that racism is baked into who they are. The IDF has shown over and over and over again that they lie and that disregard for Palestinian life is part of who they are.

Let me be explicit: it seems like a lot of US liberals understand this about the cops but don't want to accept it about the IDF. I don't know how many hospitals need to be bombed or how many villages need to be wiped out or how much evidence of a calculated campaign of mass starvation it will take for that change.

To finish Shireen's story: did the IDF ever do an internal investigation or subject the sniper who killed her to any consequences? No. They violently disrupted her funeral. We only know as much as we do because she was a journalist and US citizen, so the international media paid attention. At the end of the day the only thing we don't know is whether they targeted Shireen specifically or they just didn't give a fuck which Palestinian they were killing. It doesn't take much to imagine how this plays out day after day for regular Palestinians.