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Protestors have said they plan to hold a mass demonstration at a cricket match involving the Israeli team here.

The Glasgow Stop the War Coalition and representatives of the Lebanese community plan to attend the European series match in Anniesland on Saturday (today).

Protest organisers said the match “should not take place” amid the ongoing Middle East conflict. A Jewish leader in Glasgow said the call “smacked of discrimination” and “sport should transcend politics”.

Stephen Kliner, honorary president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, said: “We take exception that Israel should be singled out by the Stop the War Coalition from participating in sporting events in this country.

“By extension, every country involved in any form of border dispute or war situation should similarly be banned.

“Failure to call for similar bans against Russia for their involvement in Chechnya, China in Tibet, the USA in Iraq etc. etc. smacks of discrimination.” He added: “Notwithstanding, we take the view that in the true Olympic spirit sport should transcend politics.”

A spokesman for the Stop the War Coalition said: “Sporting events such as these are little more than attempts to give international respectability to a regime which has consistently flouted United Nations resolutions and which continues to bomb and harass first the Palestinian people and now the Lebanese people.”

He added the protest aims to follow a tradition of “opposing tyrannical regimes and highlighting the injustices that they perpetrate”.

In Saturday’s match, Israel are due to play Norway in Division Two of the European Cricket Council Championship. They are also slated to play at the same venue on Sunday, against France.

Their match against Jersey on Thursday, at a separate venue, was abandoned “as a result of safety issues,” said tournament manager Mike Stanger.
Source:The News