{"id":28284,"date":"2013-05-13T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=28284"},"modified":"2015-05-06T12:53:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T11:53:06","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-versus-israel-backing-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/05\/cristiano-ronaldo-versus-israel-backing-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo Versus Israel: Backing Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Portugal’s World Cup qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv earlier this week [26 Mar 2013], claim Cristiano Ronaldo refused to swap shirts with the Israeli players to demonstrate his support for Palestinian rights.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Ronaldo<\/a>

Ronaldo leaves the field without exchanging shirt with Israeli player.<\/p><\/div>\n

The snub by the Real Madrid star<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0reflects Ronaldo’s long held support for Palestine. In 2011, he gave away his Golden Boot award – worth \u00a31m – to the Real Madrid Foundation. The boot was subsequently to be sold at auction with the funds being used to help build schools in Palestine.<\/p>\n

The world’s most expensive footballer has also previously sold his sport shoes to raise money for a charity for Palestinian children.<\/p>\n

When he was still playing for Manchester United, Ronaldo was photographed wearing a Palestinian muffler, the kufiyyeh, as a support for Palestinian cause.<\/p>\n

The Ballon D’or winner is not the only footballer to express their support for Palestine. Israel’s military assaults on Gaza – as part of its ongoing conflict with Islamic militants – has led to dozens of leading professionals signing a statement, organised by ex Tottenham Hotspur goal-scorer Feddie Kanout\u00e9, urging UEFA’s to rethink their decision to stage next year’s Under 21-European Championship in Israel.<\/p>\n

Players including Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Arsenal’s Abou Diaby said that allowing Israel to host the tournament will be “seen as a reward for actions that are contrary to sporting values.”<\/p>\n

The statement from the players added: “Despite the recent ceasefire, Palestinians are still forced to endure a desperate existence under occupation, they must be protected by the international community.<\/p>\n

“All people have the right to a life of dignity, freedom and security. We hope that a just settlement will finally emerge.”<\/p>\n

One player who was originally thought to have signed the letter was Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba.<\/p>\n

However, his name, along with Newcastle United’s French international midfleider Yohan Cabaye and Valenciennes striker Anthony Le Tallec, were later removed from the list of those who had signed.<\/p>\n

A statement appeared on Drogba’s website which stated: “My name was on a list of signatories of a petition supporting. Please note, I did not sign this petition or give my support to this initiative, because I have never got involved in any conflicts, even in my own country the Ivory Coast.”<\/p>\n

In the wake of these cases, IB Times UK<\/b>\u00a0collects more examples of footballers showing their support for Palestine.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ibtimes.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS<\/i> <\/b><\/span>campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/b> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/b> BARCODE<\/b> STARTS WITH<\/b> 729<\/b>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Portugal’s World Cup qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv earlier this week [26 Mar 2013], Cristiano Ronaldo refused to swap shirts with an Israeli player to demonstrate his support for Palestine. In 2011 he gave away his Golden Boot award – worth \u00a31m – to the Real Madrid Foundation to be subsequently sold at an auction to help build schools in Palestine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}