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Israel lacrosse team forced to forfeit match after refusing to play on Shabbat
July 28, 2015 09:22
An Israeli lacrosse team playing in the sport’s World Championship in Scotland has been forced to forfeit a match for not playing on Shabbat.
The under-19s side, made up of 15 and 16-year-old amateurs participating in their first tournament, arranged with opponents Finland to play their match on Wednesday instead of Saturday.
They lost 8-0 to the Finnish side, but tournament organisers have ruled the game invalid because it was not played on Saturday and awarded Finland a 12-0 walkover. Israel are appealing against the decision.
In April, days after the schedule for the Edinburgh-based competition was released, Israel Lacrosse founder Scott Neiss wrote to the organisers asking for the game to be moved and offering to pay any associated costs.
He told the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL): “As you know Israel cannot play on Saturday. Finland has agreed to play us on Monday and we are willing to pay for any costs associated with this scheduling request.
“We feel there is no rational basis to not allow this game to take place on Monday.”
FIL denied the request, stating the need for a “common rest day” and reminding Israel that “no member country has the authority to request any notation to the schedule.”
A spokesperson for Israel Lacrosse said that following this response, “we felt our best option was to play the match on Wednesday, the day before the opening ceremony.
“We're saddened by their inability to accommodate what we feel is a reasonable request. Hopefully good sense will prevail.”
Israel lost their other matches at their debut tournament 3-2 to South Korea, 19-0 to New Zealand and 18-0 to the US.
A plan by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign to protest at every Israel match was thwarted after police forced the dozen or so demonstrators from entering the tournament venue.
Nigel Goodrich, who has set up seven Friends of Israel groups in Scotland and England, commended the police on ensuring that the young players were undisturbed by the protesters.
“Everything passed off without any incident inside without any imposition or distress. The protesters didn’t make a scene; there were no whistles or loudhailers.
“The police did their job spectacularly well. They were studiously neutral, dispassionate and very professional.”
More than 1,600 people signed a petition started by Mr Goodrich’s Edinburgh Friends of Israel group which called on the city to guarantee players’ safety in the face of protests.
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